Fonds PR-0468 - Rayonier Canada, Woodfibre Division fonds

Rayonier Canada (B.C.) Limited was active in the forest industry in British Columbia in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in ownership and operation of pulp mills at Woodfibre and Port Alice.

Previous corporate history dates back to British Columbia Pulp and Paper Company Limited, incorporated December 24, 1925. That company name was changed to Alaska Pine and Cellulose Ltd. on April 25, 1951. In the 1950s Rayonier Inc. of New York increasingly took control of Alaska Pine, and on September 16, 1959 the Alaska Pine and Cellulose Ltd. name was changed to Rayonier Canada Limited. A second company, Rayonier B.C. Limited, was also incorporated, and in 1961 the name of that company was changed to Rayonier Canada (B.C.) Limited.

In December 1967, in the U.S., the boards of Rayonier Inc. and the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT) approved a merger, and in March 1968, stockholders of Rayonier voted approval for the merger of their company into ITT. The new company, ITT Rayonier Incorporated, was a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITT. Its Canadian subsidiary, ITT Industries of Canada Ltd., now owned Rayonier assets in Canada.

In 1980, three B.C.-based companies, Doman Industries Ltd. of Duncan, Whonnock Industries Ltd. of Vancouver and British Columbia Forest Products Ltd. (BCFP) of Vancouver acquired the B.C. holdings of Rayonier. The three companies, with equal shares, organized Western Forest Products Ltd. (WFP) to make the purchase from ITT Industries of Canada Ltd.