The mayor of Marathon is calling out Queen's Park over its glacial bureaucratic pace in awarding unused Crown fibre to Northern Ontario communities and companies.
Rick Dumas is frustrated by government delays and the secrecy in rolling out the Provincial Wood Supply Competition Process. It would free up 11 million cubic metres of underutilized wood to be put to work for value-added projects.
Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister Michael Gravelle had hoped to announce the successful proponents last summer, but the ministry has been swamped with more than 100 applications.
“We finally went public because we've had many meetings with the government and the timelines they set out were unrealistic,” said Dumas. “We gotta get people back to work.”
The town has two prospective companies seeking to redevelop the shuttered Marathon Pulp mill site on Lake Superior. However, the projects can't move forward as bankable ventures without a long-term supply of wood.
Marathon has teamed up with Manitouwadge and Pic River First Nation in joint submission to locally manage the Big Pic Forest unit.
Dumas said he's made it clear to Gravelle that Marathon doesn't want to see fibre leave the area without any benefit to local communities.
“We want to have transparency and sustainability for the people in the communities surrounding the forest.”
The ministry reported that the first batch of offers went out Nov. 23. The prospective proponents have 30 days to accept the offer.
The province expects to identify the winning applicants by month's end or early in the new year.
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