Massive north-south divide in province

Massive north-south divide in province The Ottawa Sun Wed Oct 7 2009 Page: 11 Section: Editorial/Opinion Byline: BY CHRISTINA BLIZZARD Column:

Queen's Park I sometimes think Dalton McGuinty's government has given up on northern Ontario. With record unemployment rates and with EI claims soaring in northern communities, you'd think the brain trust in the premier's office would be trying to find new ways to bolster the ailing forestry and pulp and paper businesses. That's not the case. As New Democratic Leader Andrea Horwath pointed out in question period this week, the number of people receiving Employment Insurance in northern communities has risen by a staggering amount. In greater Sudbury, StatsCan figures show a 152% increase. Northern Development Minister Mike Gravelle responded by reporting Thunder Bay is about to become the "Popsicle stick capital of the world." I'm sure it's wonderful that Global Sticks is investing there, but popsicle sticks won't lick the problems of the dying forestry and pulp and paper industries. There's a massive north-south divide in this province. You can see the frustration in politicians like Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson and Howard Hampton, from Kenora-Rainy River. Forestry giant Tembec recently closed its pulp mill in Smooth Rock Falls -- a one-industry town north of Timmins. Make that a no-industry town if the government doesn't act. A consortium has raised $50 million to build a multi-purpose plant on the Tembec site. They've got everything they need -- except the wood allocation and the government is dragging its feet, even though the ministry has the authority to allocate timber rights. "It literally means the survival of our community," said Smooth Rock Falls Mayor Kevin Somer, who came to Queen's Park to see Gravelle Tuesday. The project would provide 100 direct jobs, plus 200 indirect jobs. And it would revitalize the local tax base. But Gravelle was on the defensive. "Unfortunately, the reality is that much of the wood supply is licensed and allocated to another company, which is also fighting to survive in Ontario," he told the House. Bisson says Tembec, which now owns the wood rights, has agreed to the allocation. Hampton, the former NDP leader, brings a unique, northern perspective to this. As the north bleeds jobs, who profits? The south does -- from the excess hydro the north generates through its fast-running rivers. Hampton points to a recent "green energy" announcement, in which the government said it would spend $2.3 billion on transmission lines. "What it's about is building transmission lines to take the electricity surplus that's been created in northeastern and northwestern Ontario and bringing it to southern Ontario," Hampton told me. He says the government needs a vision for beleaguered northern communities. "You could simply say, 'If you are an industry that cares about having a clean, green image, we have the cleanest, greenest energy on the planet and it also happens to be the lowest cost energy on the planet. Come and locate here. Create jobs and economic activity here,' " he said. In other words, instead of paying $2.3 billion to ship the electricity south, invite the world to the north. Every time a mill closes in the north, it frees up energy for the south. Hampton rattles off 10 paper machines that have shut down. "You've probably created 300 MW or more of surplus electricity right there," he said. A cynic might say that's the new Liberal vision for the north: Turn off the lights in the forestry and pulp and paper business -- and ship the electricity, and the jobs, south.

Mayors unite in response to Endangered Species Act

Posted Wednesday, May 14, 2008

By Working Forest staff

Midnight hour scrapping of promised changes to Ontario’s Endangered Species Act has left mayors of Northwestern Ontario shaking their heads.

Come June 30 the ESA, passed last year in Queen’s Park, will come into effect and the Mayor’s of Thunder Bay, Greenstone and Dryden are demanding the provincial government adopt provisions allowing an exemption for the forest industry.

In a press release from the Ontario Forestry Coalition Mayors Anne Krassilowsky of Dryden, Michael Power of Greenstone and Lyn Peterson of Thunder Bay spoke of their concerns for the forest industry.

“The forest sector industry had been promised by the premier of Ontario in August of 2007 that the act would not supersede Forest management planning and the Crown Forest Sustainability Act,” said Power.

“Now it appears at the twelve hour that the premier and the government are going back on this (agreement).”

In an interview Power told The Working Forest that the provincial government met with representatives from the forestry industry and Northern communities over a six month period last year.

During these meetings Power said the provincial government promised to look into creating provisions to section 55 of the act. These provisions would recognize that the Ontario forest industry already satisfies the requirements of the act through existing legislation and licensing.
In mid April the government contacted industry representatives and informed them no permanent provision would be made and a permit system would be enforced.

“We see this as another danger to the economy of northern Ontario,” said Power.
“This is about the future economic viability of our communities in the north and across Ontario. The permitting mechanism being proposed by government will create a duplication of process that negatively impacts the forest industry and threatens future opportunities.”
In response to industry and community concerns the province declared a one year deferral before permits are enforced, but industry representatives are disappointed in the provincial government’s change of heart.

“In the last few weeks government has been under pressure from special interest groups forcing government to move away from its commitments,” said David Milton, President of the Ontario Lumber Manufacturer’s Association (OLMA)).

“What is being proposed today by government, a temporary deferral to develop permits, is clearly not the intent that was discussed last year.”

Power said an estimated 230,000 families living in Northern Ontario count on the Forest industry to make a living and a failure to address any threat to the industry puts their livelihood at risk.

“We’ve had enough bad news about Ontario becoming a have not province,” said Power.
“We need government to revitalize the Ontario economy.”

Demain, l’or boréal

Carburants, médicaments, cosmétiques, textiles : avec les arbres, on fera bientôt plus que des meubles. Les bioraffineries, planche de salut de la forêt québécoise ?
par Jean-Benoît Nadeaupublié dans L'actualité du 1er avril 2008
EXCLUSIF!



Oubliez les scénarios catastrophe pour l’industrie forestière. D’ici 20 ans, les papetières seront devenues des bioraffineries, qui produiront, en plus du papier, des biocarburants, des polymères, des médicaments et divers sous-produits servant à la fabrication de pneus, de cosmétiques, de pièces autos, alouette ! Les vieilles scieries seront devenues des usines de maisons, de murs, de planchers et de toits préfabriqués, de cercueils, de meubles... Grâce aux progrès en sylviculture et en opérations forestières, les forêts pousseront plus vite. Et on fabriquera des biocarburants sur les chantiers eux-mêmes.


Bref, si les nouveaux sorciers de la forêt tiennent leurs promesses, l’avenir est dans le bois !
Ces nouveaux sorciers, ce sont les 650 chercheurs et techniciens de FPInnovations, le plus important institut de recherche forestière sans but lucratif au monde. La moitié de son budget de 100 millions de dollars provient de 500 entreprises privées ; le reste, des 14 gouvernements canadiens.


Ce qui se mijote dans les quatre centres de l’institut, c’est le contraire du cauchemar productiviste que dénonçait L’erreur boréale, de Richard Desjardins. Paprican, à Pointe-Claire, s’intéresse aux pâtes et papiers. Forintek, à Sainte-Foy, au bois de sciage, et Feric, à Pointe-Claire, à la foresterie. Quant au Centre canadien sur la fibre de bois, aussi à Sainte-Foy, il se livre à l’étude fondamentale de l’arbre à partir de la graine même. Leur mission : préparer des lendemains qui chantent aux régions forestières du Québec, durement éprouvées (voir « Carte bois »).


http://issuu.com/dsigouin/docs/or_boreal?mode=embed&documentId=080312130657-29558d370c594831ac8930a90901f749&layout=grey

Excellent article from today's Globe

PUBLICATION: GLOBE AND MAILIDN: 080460048DATE: 2008.02.14PAGE: B2 (ILLUS)BYLINE: KONRAD YAKABUSKISECTION: Report on Business EDITION: MetroDATELINE: Montreal PQ WORDS: 845WORD COUNT: 844 Thinking outside the woodbox KONRAD YAKABUSKI kyakabuski@globeandmail.com

MONTREAL Leave it to the Sunday New York Times - which has historically consumed more of Eastern Canada's forests than probably any other publication - to (once again) declare the death of paper.

Without a hint of irony, the latest edition of the venerable rest-day read-a-thon profiles a Google employee whose family lives a near paper-free life. Everything in the Uhlik household, from grocery lists to school manuals, has gone digital.

The article reminds readers that global per capita paper consumption has plateaued in recent years. In the wealthiest countries, it has actually declined. "Paper has been dealt a complete death blow," Brewster Kahle, who heads something called the Internet Archive, tells the Times. "When was the last time you saw a telephone book?" It actually matters very little that rich Westerners are using less paper. A two-kilogram per capita, per year increase in the consumption of paper products in India, China and Brazil can create enough demand to more than offset a 10-kilogram drop in the rich nations.

This is in fact the story that is unfolding. Unfortunately, Canada's spindly forest firms have been unable to cash in on this because they lacked the foresight to become global players when they had a chance. They're now saddled with high debt, labour and wood costs and a punishing exchange rate. Dependent on the slumping U.S. market, forest types here have not seen the worst yet.

Canada's forest industry is shrinking as production of pulp and paper shifts to the Southern Hemisphere. By the end of this year, China alone will have added more than 25 million tonnes of new paper-making capacity in the last decade. That's the equivalent of almost three AbitibiBowaters.

You remember Abitibi? Canada's top forest player still ranks as the world's biggest newsprint producer. But it's been chopping capacity faster than a contestant in the Kapuskasing Lumberjack Festival wields a Swede saw.
But, hark, a near lone voice cries out from the forest to offer hope. (No, it's not Barack Obama.) CIBC World Markets analyst Don Roberts, whose advice is sought by governments from New Brunswick to Moscow, offers a compelling case for why Canada's forest sector may have a chance to reclaim its historical advantage.

It stems from what Mr. Roberts calls the convergence of global markets for food, fuel and fibre. The phenomenon will increase the value of Canada's forests, while squeezing pulp and paper producers in the developing world as they struggle to secure wood supply.
Increased relative wealth in the developing world is driving unprecedented demand for foodstuffs. It's a simple equation - the richer you get, the more you eat. Yet, agricultural yields for all but a few crops have stagnated or declined. The result is that more land is needed for agriculture in places like Brazil, displacing the forest plantations that are the main source of raw material for Latin America's pulp mills.

Where plantations exist, they're increasingly devoted to growing forests for energy. In China, the government promises that by 2020, it will set aside 13 million hectares - an area about the size of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia combined - to grow trees to go into biofuel production.
Demand for biofuels is growing in the developing world for largely two reasons: The rising price of oil makes biofuels cost-competitive, and domestic trees are a more secure source of energy than imported oil.

In the developed world, demand for biofuels stems largely from a push for more green energy. The European Union's decision to set a binding 20-per-cent target for renewable energy by 2020 will, Mr. Roberts predicts, increase the continent's demand for wood by more than 200 million cubic metres annually - or about as much as the Canadian forest industry currently harvests in a single year.
The result is that wood will no longer be priced as a commodity used to make paper or lumber, but on its energy equivalency. If that happens, Mr. Roberts explains, the price of a tonne of wood pellets would be the same as for 3.3 barrels of oil - which is a lot more than the wood currently fetches.

For Canada's forest industry, herein lies a second chance. But it requires companies and governments to invest now in the research capacity to produce higher-value-added products - not basic wood pellets - to reflect the market price of the trees. Mr. Roberts foresees traditional pulp mills adding biorefineries alongside that use some of their wood to produce everything from ethanol for vehicles to polyethylene and other renewable plastics.
The competition is already thinking ahead: Finnish-based forest giant UPM-Kymmene is working with partners on producing what's known as Fischer-Tropsch fuel, a synthetic petroleum, from biomass.

If Mr. Roberts is right, as he usually is, Canada's forest companies have an opportunity to reinvent themselves. Will they seize it? Or, like paper in the Uhlik household, will they go the way of the dodo?

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