Residents of Quesnel, B.C. had nice weather for Family Day, June 2007. (Courtesy of Matt Wood)

Plans for Canada Day were cancelled this year in the small logging town of Quesnel, B.C.

The usual organizer, the Kiwanis Club, had difficulty getting volunteers.

There wasn't much reason to celebrate anyway, with a huge beetle infestation rotting most of the area's money-making forests. The town is moving quickly to cut down trees before they decay. In a few years, most trees will be worthless, a reality that threatens Quesnel's main livelihood.

"In light of how much pine beetle wood there is to harvest, it makes the community, not on an obvious level but on a subtle level, uneasy," explained Annie Gallent, lifestyle editor for the town's paper.

Canada Day almost wasn't recognized until a group of business people insisted "there needs to be something." So the South Quesnel Business Association whipped up plans for a free community pancake breakfast. It's being held in the parking lot of the local Walmart.

Might that "be an unpatriotic place to hold an event?" joked April Cheng, South Quesnel Business Association's executive director.

But, as she explained, the town somewhat relies on Walmart, a company that does "their part in their communities to fundraise and back their communities. I know in Quesnel, it's thousands of dollars they give back to our community for charities and donations."

Family Day barbecuing duty went to Greg Lewis (left) and Vikaram Bhangu. (Courtesy of Matt Wood)

Quesnel is one of three mill towns CBC News Online has been following since January. The feature Three Towns covers developments in places whose prosperity, like that of many communities across Canada, depends on a single and sometimes uncertain industry. It focuses on economic and social challenges, and how towns evolve over time as a result.

In Red Rock, Ont., another logging town experiencing hardships and residents defecting due to a mill closure, Canada Day celebrations are taken more seriously. "We are going out with a bang," confirmed Doug Garlick, who runs the Red Rock Historical Society.

To Stephenville, N.L., our third town, closures are nothing new, since the air base shut down in 1966. "We've bounced back and rebounded before. We can do it again," explained Bob Byrnes, a town councillor organizing Canada Day events. Parties are always big there, with nearly half the town showing up to a community gathering on July 1.

In Quesnel, the two-hour Canada Day breakfast starting at 9 a.m. replaces a usual senior's tea organized by the Kiwanis Club. This year, two business associations are picking up the tab.

Cheng's group scrambled to get a party together. Walmart donated supplies and use of the parking lot for the breakfast on Sunday morning.

As a business association, linking celebrations to a store rather than a park makes sense to Cheng. Quesnel is in a boom period — restaurants and large corporations are desperate for employees. Just walking back from lunch one day, Cheng saw a few retail stores with "work-for-hire" signs up.

Things are busy because of the rush to log trees and get them to the mill before the beetle rots all the pine. It's the worst outbreak of pine beetles in North American history; the bugs decay trees within about three years of initial infestation, and stain the wood blue or grey.

Unpatriotic compared to Americans

Being patriotic is important to the community, especially with so many American tourists coming to the area for hiking, fly fishing and a popular historic site in Barkerville, B.C., an hour from Quesnel.

American tourists have made jokes about Quesnel being "unpatriotic," Cheng explained. They were looking for flags and displays of patriotism comparable to keen Fourth of July celebrations.

"Walmart and camp sites feel a lot of pressure from their tourists that stop by. They have quite a few Americans who stay or shop with them," Cheng said.

Party all day — and night

This year in Red Rock, rumour has it that Canada Day celebrations, which tend to be lively, might be the last big ones for a while.

The town recently announced that taxes are going way up, possibly forcing closures of already-struggling businesses.

Hundreds have left the town of 1,063 people, "and we wonder if the volunteer fire department even functions any more," said Garlick, who will be leaving in August to teach in Oshawa, Ont.

On Canada Day, party plans are always bigger in Red Rock than in other towns in the area. Garlick has welcomed people from the outskirts for many years.

This year, the town starts with an early morning parade of floats, a pipe and drum band and antique cars — a hobby of some locals.

People look out over the town of Red Rock. (Courtesy of Mitchell Shallow)

The party ends up at the lakefront where there's a fair, including crafters, a homemade pie booth and a skate park for the kids. "I'm giving you everything here," said Chris Sutton, Red Rock's Recreation Centre co-ordinator, as he explained the morning-to-night events he helps organize.

A late afternoon barbeque overlaps an evening variety concert with a finale from the area's famous blues group, the Carruthers Brothers.

At 11 pm, volunteers set off a 20-minute firework show.

The recreation centre has hosted Canada Day as long as Sutton can remember, a good 30-odd years, with the help of family-run businesses and major corporations such as Ontario Power Generation: "We try to hit everybody up," he explained with a laugh.

The town parties on, despite the North American Paper Company (Norampac) mill closure a year ago and a fire in February that destroyed the sawmill in neighbouring Nipigon, Ont.

"To tell you the truth I don't think we'll be as busy as in past years," Sutton predicted. "Families are moving away, and then you have some fathers that work out of town."

Is that a sad thing? "Well somewhat but you've got to go work somewhere, and there's no employment here… we're going to do what we can for Canada Day."

'Everybody was upbeat'

The town of Stephenville, on the west coast of Newfoundland, has pulled through similar hard times. Two of its major employers closed — the international U.S. Air Force base in 1966, and more recently, in 2005, the Abitibi Consolidated pulp and paper mill.

But on Canada Day life goes on in a big way. "The people in this town are very patriotic. There's a lot of loyalty to the town, the province and the country," said Byrnes who's planned Canada Day events for two years.

Crowds attend a McDonald's parade of kids and move onto Mayfield park for a barbeque, games and pony rides, as well as local singers playing pop and country music. And festivities last into the night with fireworks.

(Corporate sponsorship is typical for Canada Day celebrations. Ottawa's major party hits up more than half a dozen big businesses, including, VIA Rail, Rogers and the Chicken Farmers of Canada.)

"Last year the mood was excellent we had a great crowd. Everybody was upbeat," Byrnes explained, even though news of mill job loses was still fresh.

Apart from the Abitibi closure, Sunoco and Riff's Department store are among other local businesses that have left. A major flood one week after the mill shut down didn't help.

But as Byrnes explained, "It takes a lot to kill the people in this town, and we've had some hard knocks, but we're not going to sit around and dwell on it."

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