"Too young to retire, too bloody old to work": Forest industry restructuring and community response in Port Alberni, British Columbia

Abstract

British Columbian coastal forest communities have suffered substantial job losses over the last twenty years as the forest products industry has been restructured. One of the most dramatic results has been severe community dislocation. Our paper examines both the economic restructuring and the associated community dislocation that occurred in one such coastal community, Port Alberni on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The paper is divided into two main sections. The first provides a conceptual framework that interprets the recent restructuring of British Columbia's forest industry as a transition from an older Fordist model of manufacturing to a newer model are based on principles of post-Fordism. The second uses that framework to understand the massive changes occurring in the town, which include severe job loss (more 2600 positions have been lost over the last twenty years), various forms of financial distress, and attempts to assemble alternative local economic strategies of amelioration. Key words: forest economy, British Columbia, industrial restructuring, Fordism, Post-Fordism, single-industry towns, local economic development