Western Forest Products' Update on Incident at Nanaimo Sawmill

NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - April 30, 2014) - Four people were shot this morning at Western Forest Products' (TSX:WEF) Nanaimo sawmill. Tragically, two of them have died of their injuries. The suspect is in RCMP custody. Two other victims remain in hospital.

At an RCMP news conference in Nanaimo this morning, Western Forest Products President and CEO, Don Demens said, "There was a terrible tragedy at our sawmill here in Nanaimo today. I would like to express our deepest concerns and condolences to the families, friends and coworkers and to those whose lives were lost this morning and those who were wounded. The safety and security of our employees is paramount. We will continue to cooperate fully with all authorities and will determine additional next steps in the hours ahead. We will do whatever we can for our injured colleagues and for those who have been affected by this tragic event. I would ask that everyone respect the needs of the families of the victims and our family at Western."

RCMP will be releasing information as their investigation proceeds.

Western has closed all mills and timberlands operations on Vancouver Island today out of respect for our colleagues.

Critical incident stress counsellors are being brought in to work with employees.

As we receive more information, we, and the RCMP, will provide updates.

Western Forest Products

Western is an integrated Canadian forest products company and the largest coastal British Columbia woodland operator and lumber producer with an annual available harvest of approximately 6.4 million cubic metres of timber of which approximately 6.2 million cubic metres is from Crown lands and lumber capacity in excess of 1.1 billion board feet from eight sawmills and two remanufacturing plants. Principal activities conducted by the Company include timber harvesting, reforestation, sawmilling logs into lumber and by-products and value-added remanufacturing. Substantially all of Western's operations, employees and corporate facilities are located in the coastal region of British Columbia while its products are sold in over 25 countries worldwide.