Manitoulin company accepts wood offer

A Wikwemikong company has accepted a wood supply offer from the province of Ontario of 7,000 cubic metres per year of cedar.
Forest Tech will use the wood for the increased production of cedar fencing, decking and outdoor furniture at its sawing and planing mill based on Manitoulin Island.
“Forest Tech will utilize its wood allocation to expand its production, with additional investments into value-added products in Wikwemikong,” said Stuart Assiniwe, the company's business manager, in a news release. “Further down the road, this could also help us add new jobs and new skills into our growing workforce.”
The wood supply offer is the latest in the province-led wood supply competitive process to find new ways to use wood from Crown forests in manufacturing and other commercial purposes.
The initiative is expected to create jobs and new investment in the forest industry.
“We are helping Ontario turn the corner by protecting 16 northerners' jobs and getting the best use out of Ontario's wood for the benefit of all Canadians,” said Michael Gravelle, minister of northern development, mines and forestry, in the release. “The wood supply competition and our proposed tenure legislation will help achieve this.”
The most recent round in the wood supply competitive process aims to use 11 million cubic metres of wood--roughly one third of the existing wood supply identified in Forest Management Plans--coming from 41 forest management units from across Ontario.
To date, 20 wood supply offers worth 1,266,500 cubic metres per year of wood have been accepted, and will create or protect 1,024 new and existing jobs.
Some of the wood supply will come from harvest residues, including treetops and irregular limbs, which will be used in the bioeconomy sector, in areas such as wood pellets for energy.