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.

Ontario value-added and bioenergy conferences target wood supply

Friday Nov 07, 2008
By the Working Forest staff

Prior said the purpose of the forum was to promote the development of a strong forest product value-added industry in Northern Ontario.

Two October conferences in Ontario were held in Ottawa and Thunder Bay. Focused on bioenergy and value added forest products, respectively; issues around available wood supply were prevalent at both venues.

CanBIO’s October 6-8 conference in Ottawa testified to rapid industry momentum in 2008. Presentations were heard from president Doug Bradley and directors, Chris Rees, Dean Johnson, Mark Ryans of FP Innovations, John Swaan Wood Pellets Assoc., Rob Cormier, and others.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) Program Manager for the Northwest and CanBIO Director, Jane Todd, told the 200-strong crowd that the province’s major power utility is intensively testing biomass to ready itself should the Province decide to convert the coal-fuelled plants to biomass.

From just one biomass-testing program at its Nanticoke plant last year, OPG is now in the throes of an "aggressive testing program in all of our plants." The utility is thrilled with the results so far.

"Last year the Atikokan plant had never put a wood pellet in their plant," said Todd, "but by July of this year it had burned 100 percent wood pellets for four hours. We can’t believe how easy it was."

Large co-generation isn’t the only area making big strides this year. Communities in Quebec are working co-operatively to develop bioenergy to boost a slowing forest economy.
Many of the Finnish companies in the trade show followed the conference with side-trips to Matapédia, Temiscaming and Ville Marie in Quebec and Hearst in Ontario to help these communities move forward with bioenergy solutions.

An issue that was always in the background at the conference was access to the forest on public lands. In the closing panel discussion, Christopher Rees of VisionPower Canada Inc. spoke of the need to open the debate on access to biomass for bioenergy projects – particularly those initiated by communities and small/medium sized industry players.

Twenty-five tradeshow exhibitors from Canada, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, and the U.S. demonstrated the latest technologies and equipment.
Abitibi-Bowater’s co-generation plant in Hull, Quebec, a biomass harvesting and processing operation, Camionnage Normand Sans-Cartier, and Plasco’s waste-to-energy demonstration plant in Ottawa were popular study tours.

In mid October the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay hosted the Growing Forest Value conference. The 200+ attendees heard speakers ranging from Ian de la Roche, president and CEO of FP Innovations, the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources, Donna Cansfield and Peter Woodbridge, president of Woodbridge Associates covering topics ranging from global market opportunities to entrepreneurial success stories.

In her luncheon address, Minister Cansfield touched on wood supply concerns saying that the OMNR "would access fibre as needed" in addressing concerns from small and medium value-added enterprises.

"Attendance was beyond our expectation," said Rick Prior, Director of Development at Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre and one of the organizers of the forum.
"We had participants coming from all over the country and select parts of the world."

Showcased over the two days of scheduled events were successful businesses from across Canada and the world that produce value added products such as disposable wood cutlery (see page 9).

Also present were industry experts and political leaders promoting the benefits of diversifying the Ontario forest product industry.

Prior said value-added industries would act as a buffer during harsh economic times not unlike the ones the industry is currently suffering."If we had more value added in the north, and similar economic situations happen in the future, we may not be hit as hard as the value added industry has not been as badly hit elsewhere," said Prior.

"If we intend to live through the down times in the future more prosperously then we need to think about how we are going about using our forests."

Prior said enough interest has been shown to organize another such forum in the future.
"It was an excellent forum for networking between those who have an interest in a value added industry and those that have and can facilitate it," said Prior.