Whitesand First Nation to build a sawmill, co-gen plant with wood allocation

Whitesand First Nation has accepted a provincial wood allocation that could create 40 new jobs for that community.

At a news conference in Thunder Bay Tuesday, officials from Whitesand First Nation announced that they have accepted the allocation of 149,000 cubic metres of wood per year from the province. The wood from that allocation will be used to build a sawmill, a three-megawatt co-generation facility and a plant to manufacture clean-burning wood pellets.

While the cost of building that infrastructure isn’t known, its capital costs are estimated to be around $22 million.

Getting the wood needed to build the plants has been a battle for the First Nation since 1992 when former Chief Doug Sinoway led the community. While Sinoway passed away in 1996, many community members continued to fight for the creation of a biomass plant.

"Sinoway was already looking into biomass and I’m just carrying on his work," said Allan Gustafson, the current chief Whitesand First Nation. "This is a very important announcement today. I’m very happy that we could do something for the community."

With a biomass plant operating in the community, Whitesand First Nation will be able to limit its dependence on diesel generated power.

Whitesand First Nation is the 22nd successful applicant through the province’s wood supply competition.

Despite Tuesday’s announcement, Gustafson said he didn’t believe the plant would be up and running for another three years.

Ed Fukushima of Atikokan Renewable Fuels will be working with the First Nation to develop the project, acting as part of the design and construction team for the pellet plant and co-generation units. 

Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Michael Gravelle said the community didn’t receive any special treatment because all applications must go through a fairness commissioner to ensure there’s no political influence.

"The fact is this is a very legitimate project," Gravelle said. "In order to move forward they needed a wood allocation. The committee that made the recommendations recommended that this project be supported.

"One of our goals was to see more opportunities for Aboriginal communities that have many years of expertise in the forestry sector but who had not yet had the opportunity. This is a good news story."