Western Forest Products: Statement from President and Chief Executive Officer Don Demens on Incident at Nanaimo Sawmill

NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 2, 2014) - Western Forest Products (TSX:WEF) -

The safety of our employees has always been, and will continue to be, our highest priority. Western is working closely with our colleagues at United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 to review the security of our workplaces and we will make any changes needed to ensure our colleagues are confident in the security of their work environment.

Operations at all mills will commence Monday, May 5, with the exception of the Nanaimo sawmill. We will have additional security presence at all sites.

Western will be proactive in ensuring that our employees will not be financially impacted due to this week's closures.

We are grateful for the support we have received from all levels of government, the community and our industry colleagues.

Again, we request that media and others respect the privacy of our employees during this difficult time. We will not be offering interviews, as our focus is on ensuring that the families, workers and everyone else affected get the help they need through grief counselling or any other means.

We will continue to cooperate fully with authorities throughout this criminal investigation. Some employees have been experiencing unwanted media attention and would like it to stop. It is neither appropriate nor acceptable to approach our employees and their families at this sensitive time.

Please refer to our website www.westernforest.com for further 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.