End of an era in Gold River

The stress has been building for months in the Vancouver Island town of Gold River.

This is the day the Bowater pulp mill, the town's biggest employer, hands out severance packages to more than 360 people.

Mill workers there have known for months there were no jobs to return to, but today as they receive their severance packages from the company, Don Robson of the pulp workers union expects the finality of the mill's closure will at last start to sink in.

He says the first month right after the severance date is a very critical time.