The Township of Ignace is lobbying the Ontario government to keep a Ministry of Natural Resources area office open.

In an Aug. 30 release, Mayor Lee Kennard said the potential loss of 11 government jobs to the northwestern Ontario municipality of 1,100 “would amount to the first step in dismantling the community.”

Ignace has much to look forward to with the forestry and mining industry on the rebound in the coming years.

Resolute Forest Products plans to reopen its Ignace sawmill in late 2013 or early 2014, and Bending Lake Iron is in the environmental assessment stage of developing an open pit iron ore mine by 2015.

Kennard said he wasn't able to get any assurances from Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa that the Ignace office would remain open.

“The MNR office is seen as the only face of government in the community,” said Kennard, who compared to the loss of 11 jobs in Ignace to losing 1,100 jobs in Thunder Bay.