No wood, no problem

They don’t have an operator and they don’t have a wood supply, but officials from Greenstone and Ginoogaming First Nation are pushing ahead with plans to open a pair of idled nearby wafer-board and plywood plants.

On Tuesday the two sides inked a memorandum of understanding to work to convince the province to provide the wood needed to take the next step to fully reopen the wafer-board facility in Greenstone and parts of a plywood facility in Longlac.

Both have been shut down since 2008, and the restarts would create 330 direct jobs.

Greenstone Mayor Renald Beaulieu said he’s confident the economic climate has changed enough to convince potential operators they can make a go of it, but without the fibre needed to produce product, the plan will be stopped in its tracks.

It’s not an impossible task, Beaulieu said.

“We’re having the province take a real strong look at what’s out there for the parties involved to utilize so that this mill can restart,” he said.

“It was stated there is hardwood around the area. It’s been there in the past, it’s not being utilized at this time. It’s been over five years that hardwood has not been utilized in Greenstone, and that is material that is required to operate this mill.

“There is no reason why this government cannot help the First Nations and the municipality of Greenstone to restart this project.”

Ontario’s wood supply competition ended earlier this summer, with about four million cubic metres of timber doled out by the province to 36 different organizations.

Beaulieu acknowledged they are behind other projects, but noted development and new ideas will always arise and he expects the province to react accordingly.

“We’re at the table, we want to see this, and I think this is a great time for us to do this. There have been groups working at this for the last two or three years, and it’s been difficult. But now we’re there to try to make sure that those parties that are involved that have an interest in this mill that we’re there to support them as a municipality.”

A consortium, which also included Boreal Resource Industries, a group of former Longlac Wood Industries employees, the Rocky Shore Development Corporation of Ginoogaming First Nation and Greenstone Development Ltd., was formed in 2009; its goal was to see the two mills reopen in some form or another.

Almost immediately the group acquired title of the mills from Kruger Industries, along with $500,000 for site remediation for the site.

“Now we’ve got to find an operator to come on board and work with us,” said Adolph Raseyvych, the economic development manager for Ginoogaming First Nation.

He added they’ve got potential buyers lined up to purchase the waferboard. He’s confident it can be done this time, having earlier mentioned a Texas-based company had shown initial interest, only to find it less expensive to do business in British Columbia.

“We think the economy is going to change in 2012, so it’s a lot different than 2009 and 2010. I guess that’s why people were skirting from us. Nobody wanted to do business, but now it’s going to change,” he said.

The partners estimate that in addition to the 330 permanent positions, the plant reopening would create 768 indirect jobs in the region and 571 induced jobs in southern Ontario – will spur the province into action.