Resolute sawmill marks 10-year anniversary The Resolute Forest Product's sawmill
in Thunder Bay marked 10 years in operation.The Montreal-based forestry giant said
it's a “unique business venture” based on the collaboration
between the company and the Fort William First Nation.
With an annual capacity of 300 million
board feet of stud...
New era of forest tenure A new model for allocating Crown timber
supply along the northeastern shore of Lake Superior went into
effect in April.
In March, Marathon's Daryl Skworchinski
was appointed chairman of the Nawiinginokiima Forest Management Corporation. Serving with him on the board is Grant Goodwin,
Donal...
Rentech drops woody jet fuel for wood pellets The California energy company which
once touted made-in-Northern Ontario green jet fuel now wants to make
wood pellets.Los Angeles-based Rentech has
drastically changed the scope of its project in Northern Ontario as
it announced, May 2, it is switching gears by acquiring a shuttered
Weyerhaes...
FONOM fights back for forest The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) is preparing to launch a campaign designed to
bring residents from across Ontario into a conversation about the
importance of Ontario’s Boreal Forest to Northern communities,
Ontario’s economy and the environment.
FONOM’s efforts come o...
Stellar safety record helps fund cancer care The woodlands division of Resolute Forest Products in Thunder Bay achieved a safety milestone in working
250,000 hours without a recordable injury among its 120 employees.In recognition of the achievement,
Resolute presented the operation with a board of directors award,
which comes with a $5,00...
Forest management corporation activated Former Marathon economic development
officer Daryl Skworchinski has been appointed chairman of the
province's first Local Forest Management Corporation.Joining him on the board of directors
to the new Nawiinginokiima Forest Management Corporation (NFMC) are
Grant Goodwin, Donald Fry, Raymond Bo...
Forest inventory company expanding Forest inventory company Terrafact has
expanded, opening locations on the Nipissing First Nation near North Bay and in Valdivia, Chile.Terrafact, based in Sault Ste. Marie,
formed a partnership last year with the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve to offer 3D mapping services that detail forestry...
Jim Blight is an all-star manager Jim Blight, general manager of Domtar's
Dryden pulp operation, received the Mill Manager of the Year Award at
the Paper Week Canada industry conference in Montreal, Feb. 21.The award recognizes outstanding
leadership and performance in the pulp and paper industry.Blight has been a fixture at the...
Canada's forest industry looks to replenish the ranks Canada's forest industry is shaking
itself free of a decade-long funk that resulted in waves of mill
closures and layoffs.
With industry analysts forecasting
North American lumber prices to skyrocket this year and predicting
the entire sector is on the verge of a global “super cycle,”
Canadi...
Sudbury building highlights use of wood in industrial design J.L. Richards architect Jeff Laberge
will tell you that designing a building that is structurally sound,
aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sustainable comes with its
own rewards. But when the industry around you recognizes that design
for its architectural excellence, the rewards becom...
Crown wood agency becomes operational this spring The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR)
is still aiming for a spring startup date to roll out a new Crown
forest agency on the north shore of Lake Superior.After the Ontario government announced
the formation of the Local Forest Management Corporation (LFMC) for
the Marathon area last May, Natu...
Espanola must pay Domtar: MPAC The Municipal Property Assessment Corp.
(MPAC) has ruled the town of Espanola must pay paper mill Domtar more
than $4 million, following a recent property reassessment.MPAC’s returned assessment of
Domtar’s paper mill property was $9,937,000 for the years 2009 to
2012. The original assessed val...
Prendiville prepares to fire up Kenora lumber mill When news leaked out in mid-January
that the mothballed Kenora Forest Products stud mill would be back
operating by summer, it didn't take long for mill manager Rod McKay
to be inundated with job queries.“The phone has been ringing
off the wall.”After a decade of despair, there is a resurgence
...
Eacom strikes deal to rebuild Timmins mill Montreal's Eacom Timber Corporation has
entered into an agreement with USNR Kockums Cancar Inc. to rebuild
its fire-damaged Timmins mill.The total project cost is $25 million,
a substantial portion of which is being funded from proceeds of
insurance related to a fire.
The mill remains shut do...
Pellets mean power in Atikokan Within a day of being awarded a provincial wood pellet supply agreement, Thunder Bay's Ed Fukushima was on the phone negotiating with a manufacturer of pellet press dies.The president of Atikokan Renewable Fuels had been waiting for months for word from Ontario Power Generation (OPG) on a procureme...
Building resilient communities The Northern Ontario Sustainable
Communities Partnership (NOSCP) and Algoma University's Nordik
Institute will be hosting a conference in Sault Ste. Marie early next
year to advance the concept of community-based forest management
across Canada.The Building Resilient Communities
conference (Ja...
The North makes its mark at Wood WORKS! Awards Sudbury's Living with Lakes Centre won
the Green Building Wood Design Award at the annual Ontario Wood
WORKS! gala in Toronto, Nov. 7.J.L. Richards & Associates in
association with Perkins + Will were the architects and engineers.The two-storey academic research
facility was described by judges...
Kenora utility pole plant starts operation A Kenora utility pole peeling plant
will start production this fall.Tannis Romaniuk, Wincrief Forestry Products executive operations manager, said operations began in
September with test runs of the pole peeling equipment.Commercial operations are anticipated
to start in late October or early No...
Nine Northern provincial parks to close for camping The recent announcement that nine parks
in Northern Ontario will be closed for camping has struck a nerve.
Within days of the early October announcement, a groundswell of
opposition has been brewing across the Northeast, where eight of the
parks are located.The nine Northern parks include;
Cal...
Eacom rebuilding Timmins sawmill Eacom Timber Corp. is rebuilding its
Timmins sawmill after a fire destroyed part of the mill in January.“We were left with half a mill,”
said Brian Nicks, senior vice-president of forest operations. “Now
we are in a position to rebuild and it is just a matter of cleaning
up the the site, dealin...
Kenora architect makes his mark Wherever architect David Nelson goes in
Kenora, he sees the visible and tangible signs of his talents. “My
kids go to a school that we designed, I go to city hall and there's
the council chambers, I go to the public works buildings and we did
that. “We find ourselves in an odd position
because...
Forestry innovation centre builds momentum When Lorne Morrow took the job as CEO
of the Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio- conomy (CRIBE)
in December 2009, it was the bleakest of times in the forestry industry.Launched by the Ontario government,
there were sky-high expectations placed upon the Thunder Bay
organization to cre...
Condos, offices, energy considered for paper mill site A biomass energy plant, offices,
residential developments: they’re all options being considered by
the new owners of the former St. Marys Paper property in Sault Ste. Marie. But it will be early spring 2013 before any redevelopment
takes place on the site.
In May, Riversedge Development Inc., ...
Atikokan mill positioned for European exports A Thunder Bay entrepreneur expects to have contracts in hand by early spring to start exporting wood pellets to major European customers.Ed Fukushima, president of Atikokan Renewable Fuels, is focused on firming up an order book to go “flat out” at production startup for his northwestern Ontario mi...
Pellet maker looks overseas Tom Logan can't sell from an empty fibre basket.The Toronto wood pellet entrepreneur is hopeful that an upcoming meeting this week with Ministry of Natural Resources officials in Marathon will produce some “clarity” in forging ahead with a bio-coal project in the North Shore community.The president...
Resolute FP to invest $12 million to $17 million in operation The town of Iroquois Falls was happy to learn that Resolute Forest Products (the former AbitibiBowater) is investing $12 milllion to $17 million in the thermomechanical pulp mill.“This is certainly good news for the town,” said Mayor Gilles Forget. “The fact that they decided to generate some fundi...
Sudbury and Nipissing Forests have mixed species Managing a forest involves much more than planting trees. Various users, ranging from commercial to recreational, have to be considered along with the flora and fauna.“The issues and the forests here are unique in that they are in transition between the Boreal Forest to the north and the Great Lake...
BioSila aims for 2012 startup at Mattawa site A failure to secure a wood allocation from the province has delayed plans for a wood pellet plant near Mattawa.BioSila purchased the former Tembec facility in September last year from the Mattawa-Bonfield Economic Development Corp. (MBEDC) with plans to go into production early next year. However, ...
Caribou conservation plan limiting wood supply The woodland caribou is becoming as controversial as it is elusive since provincial conservation plans for the species may result in drastic reductions of wood supply in the Abitibi River Forest. Those conservation plans are threatening the livelihood of those who depend on the forest and northeast...
Eacom president wants pro-jobs attitude in forestry policy The president and CEO of Eacom Timber Corp. said his company will withhold making any major investments in its recently-acquired Northern Ontario sawmills until there is a change in Ontario's forest policy. In an interview with Northern Ontario Business, Rick Doman sharply criticized the provincial...
Eacom president miffed at Ontario forestry policy The president and CEO of Eacom Timber Corp. said his company will withhold making any major investments in its recently-acquired Northern Ontario sawmills until there is a change in Ontario's forest policy.In an interview with Northern Ontario Business, Rick Doman sharply criticized the provincial ...
AbitibiBowater poised to re-open Ignace sawmill Ignace may regain its moniker as a forestry town with AbitibiBowater poised to reopen a shuttered sawmill.That's good news for Joanne Ratthe, president of Elk Construction, who's hopeful better times are ahead for the northwestern Ontario township of 1,400.“We're really hoping we have the opportuni...
Hearst manufacturer wastes no wood Normand Lacroix wants to say his company Industries LacWood is very busy, but he doesn’t want too many people to know it.The Hearst forest products company counts international furniture maker, IKEA, as a major client as well as big-box stores such as Canadian Tire.“I don’t even know how many produ...
Kenora Forest Products receives wood supply A black and white aerial photo in Rod McKay's office at Kenora Forest Products taken in the mid-1920s show stacks of lumber piled so high in the yard that workers scaled catwalks to cross over them. That was back in the heydays of the area's forestry industry when logs were rafted in large booms ar...
First Nation management company has inside track on consultation Conrad Tom has a versatile and complicated jobOfficially, he's listed as an Aboriginal Liaison for Miisun Integrated Resource Management, but he has one core function: building trust.The First Nations-owned company in Kenora has taken some innovative, yet old-school approaches on resource sharing o...
Hearst pays tribute to sawmill history with new museum The forest industry played an instrumental role in the making of Hearst.For more than 90 years, families from across Ontario and Quebec made their way to the small northeastern community of 5,800 and contributed to its rich history.Several generations of residents were present for the unofficial op...
Optimism rises around forest tenure modernization There is new optimism in Marathon following the creation of the Nawiinginokiima Forest Management Corporation, the first pilot project to be established under the province's overhauled forest tenure system.Nawiinginokiima, which means “working together,” will serve as one of two pilots under the Lo...
Thunder Bay ice cream stick factory finally opens Call it a fortuitous Google search for Thunder Bay.An Internet hunt for white birchwood, which led a British Columbia ice cream stick manufacturer to northwestern Ontario, has led to a factory that is now open for business.Almost two years after the news first broke that Global Sticks was coming to...
Weyerhaeuser taking offers for Wawa OSB mill If an idled Weyerhaeuser oriented strandboard mill (OSB) in Wawa ever resumes production again, it will be under new ownership.The Washington state pulp and paper giant has the northeastern Ontario mill on the selling block to anyone that wants to run it as an OSB operation.Trouble is, there is no ...
Sawmill operator frustrated by wood competition One of Canada's last great company towns will not go down without a fight, said its sawmill general manager. Dubreuil Forest Products (DFP) mill manager Dave Jennings said despite the government's rejection of his company's application for Crown fibre in the provincial wood supply competition, the ...
Iron ore explorer moves toward processor decision To Mayor Lee Kennard, Ignace will always be a forestry town in his heart.Logging has been the historic economic staple of this northwestern Ontario community of 1,400 since the late 1800s. It's what lured Kennard here in 1978 as a mechanical supervisor at one of Great Lakes Paper's woodland camps.H...
Mill manager calls wood competition “anything but fair” One of Canada's last great company towns will not go down without a fight, said its sawmill general manager.Dubreuil Forest Products (DFP) mill manager Dave Jennings said despite the government's rejection of his company's application for Crown fibre in the provincial wood supply competition, the d...
Marathon optimistic about forest tenure pilot There is new optimism in Marathon this week, following the creation of the Nawiinginokiima Forest Management Corporation, the first pilot project to be established under the province's overhauled forest tenure system.Nawiinginokiima, which means “working together,” will serve as one of two pilots u...
Wood supply winners and losers Marathon mayor Rick Dumas is not happy with the Ontario province following a decision to transfer the area's wood allocation to a proposed jet fuel refinery project in nearby community.The northwestern Ontario town of 3,800 on the shores of Lake Superior has been working with Toronto company, Proto...
Animosity builds over forestry legislation Community and industry rancor continues to build against the McGuinty government over the refusal to stage a final round of consultation meetings in Northern Ontario before a new forestry bill is passed into law.Hearings on Bill 151 – Ontario's Forest Tenure Modernization Act -- will be held in Tor...
Atikokan pellet proposal gets nod for Crown wood A Thunder Bay businessman has received
the first allotment of Crown fibre in the province's wood supply
competition.Ed Fukushima of Atikokan Renewable
Fuels is officially the first company out of the gate in accepting an
offer to access 279,000 cubic metres of poplar and birch annually
over th...
Wood council wants to go ever higher The Canadian Wood Council wants Ontario wood used in the framing of mid-rise buildings.The council and its Ontario WoodWORKS! arm are making a case for changes to the provincial building code to allow the construction of wood-framed buildings from five to eight storeys, otherwise known as mid-rises...
Dryden pellet developer miffed over wood supply competition Bryan Tardiff had high hopes that his company's biomass wood pellet plant would create hundreds of wood harvesting and manufacturing jobs in northwestern Ontario. All he needed to make it a reality was access to Crown fibre through the province's wood supply competitive process.But those dreams wer...
Toronto wood pellet maker eyes former Marathon pulp mill A Toronto biofuel company has innovative plans to use Northern Ontario woody biomass to make a specialty pellet that European power producers may be eager to snap up. Protocol Biomass wants to set up shop at the former Marathon Pulp mill site and install a roasting process to make torrefied wood pe...
New Ontario biomass energy group to lobby for better incentives Some small forestry-related companies are banding together to make a case to the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to offer greater incentives to get the bio-economy off the ground.The McGuinty government has created a great inducement to lure international solar and wind energy developers to Ontario w...
