As the last pieces of furniture roll off an assembly line in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, workers contemplate a move west for new jobs.

Shaw Wood’s contract with furniture retailer IKEA is coming to an end. With no one to sell to, the manufacturing plant in Cornwallis will close on July 31.

Darren Gumbly, his partner and their two children hear the siren call of a booming Western Canadian economy.

“That seems to be the only place where there’s any demand of jobs. It’s a shame for this area,” said Gumbly, one of the 200 workers about to lose their jobs.

Spirits were high when the plant opened in 1998 as a cornerstone of the Annapolis Basin Conference Centre, designed to revitalize the former military base.

Shaw Wood became a bustling business, providing well-paying jobs to an area of the province much in need. In 2000, the workforce doubled to 200 after exports reached almost $20 million, up from $4 million a year earlier.

But it all soured just a few months ago, when Shaw announced it had lost IKEA because of a high Canadian dollar and competition overseas.

Lawrence Garner, a local businessman, fears the plant closure will trigger a cycle of decline in the Cornwallis area.

“You find young families pull out of the area and when young families pull out schools start to close,” he said.

Like Gumbly, Lee Archibald plans to head to Alberta to find a new job. He expects many in a group of 20 taking a heavy machinery course will follow too.

“A lot of them want to go out west and run heavy machinery,” Archibald said. “There’s a lot of young people going.”