December 14, 2001 Temiscaming...saving a paper mill

Thirty years ago next month, the employees of the Canadian International Paper Company (CIP) at Témiscaming, Québec, 65 km north of North Bay, were given the shortest possible notice that the mill was closing and that they would be out of work.  Since the mill owned the town, it looked like the death knell for this picturesque community located were Lake Témiskamingue enters the Ottawa River.  Eighteen months later, in one of the most unique and unprecedented chapters in Canadian corporate and labour history, Tembec was born to become a model for corporate leadership, entrepreneurship and success.

The story of the two-year struggle was recorded in the North Bay Nugget by Témiscaming's Gord McCulloch, who got the job when he was laid off after 40 years at CIP.  Gord had been the editor of the town "newspaper" Tem Times for 22 years.  Gord went on to report Témiscaming and Mattawa life for many years, and wrote the popular "Pine Cones" column on local history.  Our paths crossed many times over the years, and I was always impressed with this gentle man with a camera around his neck and a notepad in his hand.

The Tembec website www.tembec.ca notes that the birth of Tembec is recorded in the National Film Board film Témiscaming, Quebec.  The film is also recommended in Témiscaming's 75th anniversary history book.  I mentioned the film in a recent column and several people asked for further information.

A week ago, when I finally got to see the film, I realized it was an early example of reality television, where the cameramen were intimately involved in an early version of survival.  The video was actually two thirty minute films showing the struggle to save the mill and infrastructure, and the struggle to involve various stakeholders in the development of the new corporate structure.

I decided to show the film to a gentleman, Roland Ayotte, who I met by chance in a copy shop a few months ago.  He worked for CIP for 25 years, was involved as a worker in the fight to save the mill, and worked 22 years for Tembec until he retired in 1996.  When I first met Roland, I travelled with him and his wife Jeannine to Témiscaming, Kipawa and Thorne one day for an orientation to the area and some of its history. Among other things we visited the museum, the municipal office, Commonwealth Plywood and Tembec, and talked to several residents.  I remember in particular Lincoln White and Ike Nunn at Thorne.
 

Roland Ayotte, looking at his copy of the 50th Anniversary history of the International Paper Company, including a section of Témiscaming.

When we looked at the NFB video last week, it was like a reunion for Roland and his wife.  He knew most of the people by name and was in the film half a dozen times himself.  His daughter Claudette who worked at CIP was also in the film a couple of times.  A young engineer by the name of Frank Dottori was very active in the events of the day.  We stopped the video several times while we talked about those critical events.  Roland can be identified in the video because of the red hard hat that he wore then and still has.  It was a carry over from his CIP days, and has the CIP sticker moved inside with the Tembec sticker on the outside.

There is little doubt that the workers, the Union, the townspeople and the former CIP managers saved the mill.  There is little doubt that the blockade on the bridge and the confrontation with the people fighting to take the accumulated logs away had an impact on the speed and size of the response from the various levels of government.  The remarkable success of their efforts was capped with the inclusion of the Union on the Board of Governors, the investment of 400,000 dollars by the workers, ands worker participation and profit sharing in the company. Roland Ayotte had a very nice cheque when he retired.

Témiscaming has a fascinating history going back to the early Algonquin people who lived in the area for thousands of years.  Fur traders, explorers, and missionaries were followed by lumbermen and settlers. The squared timber era was followed by the sawmill era, where names like McConnelkl, Lumsden and Gordon remind one of the tough entrepreneurs who took the chances, built boats, mills and communities, and established a base for the future pulp wood industry.  In 1919 the Riordon Company built a state of the art pulp mill and model company town with all of the amenities.  By 1925 CIP had taken over the operation.  Over the years the community grew, with the introduction of the railway and the road to North Bay in 1937.  The communities of Kipawa, Latang, Little Canada, Thorne and Eldee provided places for the overflow population to live away from company involvement.
 

The north end of the Tembec mill looking down on the Ottawa River to the left, and the town of Témiscaming in the distance.  Photos by Doug Mackey.

Tembec is no longer a company town, and amalgamation with Latang in 1985 has provided a more viable community of 3,000 people, with improvements like a new truck by-pass and a new recreational and cultural centre.  In 1988 Kippewa joined with Tee Lake and Jawbone Bay to establish a separate community.  Community Voices is provided to 1350 homes in Témiscaming, 172 in Kipawa and 132 in Thorne.

Tembec continues to play a major role in the life of the Témiscaming area, and most of their one thousand employees are from the immediate area.  There is some pride in the fact that Tembec has gone on to remarkable success worldwide.  The Tembec website notes that they had "gross sales of 2.6 billion, assets of 3.1 billion, 39 manufacturing units, and approximately 8,000 employees."  Tembec's environmental program has been widely acclaimed.

It all started 30 years ago in early 1972 and is well recorded in the video mentioned above and in the memories of the many participants who made it happen. 

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