Plans to restart

AbitibiBowater has promised to invest millions of dollars to restart an idled Ignace sawmill, but the deal won’t go ahead without the consent of the local labour union.

Officials with AbitibiBowater announced the investment of more than $32 million over the next 24 months to restart the idled Ignace sawmill at a news conference Monday. The plant shutdown in 2006 after the company didn’t receive enough wood allocation following a softwood lumber agreement.

The investment included plans to upgrade the plan over the next two years, with a return to production around 2014.  The reopening of the plant would provide more than 80 new jobs.

But the investment hinges on the condition that the local labour union agrees to the deal.
Guy Bourgouin, president of Local 1-2010 United Steelworkers Union, said many cities in the north that were reliant on the forestry industry went through hard times in the past couple of years and the announcement to restart the plant comes as a relief.

“Good news in the forestry industry right now is few and far between so this is definitely a welcome,” Bourgouin said. “I feel pretty confident that the members will agree. We’ve stepped up to the plate for the last seven years during the recession so I don’t see this local not doing the same in this particular case. We want to create jobs.”

Bourgouin said he had mixed feelings about waiting another three years before workers could go back to work but at the same time he expected more mills would follow suit and even hinted at other possible restart announcements coming soon.

Ignace mayor Lee Kennard said he was happy about the news and thought of it as a positive turn for the city. When the plant closed in 2006, it crushed any hope residents had in it reopening.

The announcement that the plant could be restarting soon will help to rekindle hope in the community, he said.

“This is really needed. We were really down,” Kennard said. “Our tax basis was so low that we were starting to not being able to afford our arena and we were debating on closing it by next winter but this should certainly help us out. I think everybody is going to be very excited by the news.”

Richard Groves, forestry manager with AbitibiBowater, said the money will go toward an additional energy system, kilns to dry lumber and a planer produce finished products.

“This is good news for Ignace and the workers there,” Groves said. “The mill has been down so long that all the workers have left. We will be out there attracting new employees and that’s big news for the town and big news for opportunities in that facility.”

For the next two years, the facility will go through construction to upgrade the plant.

Groves said when they shut down the plant they took extra care to ensure that all the gears and motors were protected to ensure that the plant could be restarted without much difficulty.