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More than 30 years ago, Keith Dickens, another YTS board member, visited the Cowichan Valley while on holidays from England. Enchanted by the natural beauty of the area, he decided to emigrate here with his family. In 1975, Dickens was hired as an electrician at the Youbou mill. When the mill closed in 2001, he was 60 and opted to take early retirement, although his pension was reduced. “I knew retirement was in the cards anyway,” he says, “but it’s made a big hole in my RRSP.” His family has had to make some big changes in their way of life. “One of our hobbies was travel, and we planned to do a lot of that when I retired,” says Dickens. “We’ve had to curtail that. And not going to work everyday with a bunch of guys you enjoy is a change of lifestyle.” The YTS meetings, he says, “fill a big hole.”

YTS board members agree that since the mill closed, there have been more social problems, including marriage breakdowns, and drug and alcohol abuse among workers and their families. Says Dickens, “The mill was a very unique place to work. It was like family. It wasn’t just a place where you put in your eight hours and went home. When the mill closed, that social loss was huge.”

Board member Roger Wiles says, “There’s people on medication for depression. On the last day the mill was running, there were grown men breaking down in tears.” Born in Victoria, Wiles worked at Youbou since 1979 as a stationary engineer, working with the steam boilers and carbines. The Youbou mill was self-sufficient, using wood waste to generate its own power. Wiles is 50 now, and is living off his savings. He says defiantly, “I moved here by choice and I’m not going to be forced out by corporate giants and the government.”

Deputy Forest Minister Don Wright said, in March 2002: “I understand that an industrial adjustment committee has found alternative employment for 150 of the original 200 displaced Youbou workers.” But the survey conducted by students for the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group found that only 23 per cent of the workers had found full-time work, 15 per cent had part-time, 31 per cent had no employment income, and 30 per cent had chosen to take early retirement. Seventy-three per cent said they did not receive any assistance with job retraining, or finding new employment, from the employer’s “industrial adjustment” office. “People who were contacted for the survey later said how moved they were to be contacted,” says James. “This was 100 people, and this was a year after the mill closed.”
Richard Weir was a young boy when his family moved out to B.C. from the Prairies. He worked at the Youbou mill for 33 years, 25 of them as a forklift operator. After the mill closed, it was tough to find another job. At one point, he says, he thought of going back to Saskatchewan. “Then I said to myself, ‘What would you do in Saskatchewan?’ No, I want to stay right here.”

Weir planned to buy a truck and camper and do some travelling with his wife after he retired. “I won’t be getting a truck and camper now,” he says, ruefully. Instead, he’s working at a small sawmill with half a dozen other workers who take turns running the machines and processing lumber. “Now, at my age,” says Weir, “I find this job hard.” He knows the younger workers with children to support have it worse, but this isn’t how he envisioned the end of his working days. “When I look at what’s happened,” he says, “I feel bitter.”

Rayner worked in construction for a while last year, but had to quit because of health problems. Like Weir, he found a job at a small mill, and also found it pretty strenuous at his age. “They work hard,” he says. “I start to thinking, ‘Do I want to be there when I’m 55?’ I said, ‘No way. I’m going to kill myself [if I do].’ That’s another problem — my age. I’m 50 and some people don’t want to hire me.”

Things seem to be finally turning around for Rayner, however, and he’s found work as a farmhand. “I love it,” he says. “You’re working outside and every day is different.” Sometimes two different farm owners vie for his services at the same time. “There’s times I’m actually finding work for others because I get so busy,” Rayner says, proudly. “Of course, it’s always someone from Youbou first. This one guy, he hadn’t had a job for a year and I found him some work. We gotta take care of each other.”