Bullying tactics

Dear Mike:
I’m attaching a letter I sent to Premier Kathleen Wynne. I hope that all who are capable of writing to the Ontario government will do so A.S.A.P.
Dear Premier Wynne:
We heard with disbelief the news that talks have broken off between Resolve Forest Products, Expera, and your Ontario government.
We have always read with interest and relief when you were first elected, and more recently, that you and your government had given full support to the forest industry—and now this!
We are of the opinion that this must be a purely political problem. Mr. Bill Mauro is your minister of natural resources whose riding is in Thunder Bay, where Resolute has a mill.
The Resolute mill in Thunder Bay is operating very successfully in part due to the fact that they are wanting—and taking—the cheaper wood along Highway 11 and 17 for their facilities in Thunder Bay and proposing more remote, expensive wood for Fort Frances.
As a community, we are weary of the bullying tactics of Resolute. They should not be allowed to manage the forests around Fort Frances because they obviously, from the time they arrived, have had no social conscience whatsoever for our town and for our area.
Why did they plan their timing of saying “no” to Expera’s letter of intent? Obviously so that decisions could not be made before freeze-up. They have advised that even though they “heated the mill for two winters to keep it in an asset protection mode,” they will now not heat the mill over this coming winter.
How despicable to let all that equipment freeze when a viable company is wanting to purchase the mill, which would be for the best interest of everyone (except Resolute). A new management model is needed!
From everything we have heard, Expera has a vision of the future of the forest products sector that is certainly lacking in Resolute, and Expera should be encouraged to move into Ontario.
Our forest is not owned by Resolute but rather it is a provincial resource. Your government, and Mr. Mauro as minister of natural resources and forestry, has an extremely important obligation to make forest allocation decisions.
This decision cannot and should not be left to Resolute.
Please, Premier Wynne, remember that our local mill just celebrated its 100th anniversary (and, yes, just after Resolute closed it down!) so for all that time, there was wood flow for the pulp mill in Fort Frances and a sawmill in Atikokan.
Should the Expera purchase take place, there would be about 200 direct jobs, as well as 800 indirect jobs for our area.
If there is not a pulp mill in Fort Frances, the local forests will be under-utilized, which obviously will lead to very poor forest management practices.
By not using the full allowable harvest, this will result in less economic benefit to our region from the forest, and therefore less revenue to our province.
On a more personal level, we have seen so many of our young men, previously employed by the paper mill here, leaving for Alberta and Saskatchewan as there are jobs there for them.
However, it seems that the availability of housing for their families is extremely expensive, so their families are living here while they travel west to gain employment . . . not a great scenario for family living to be sure.
Another item is that local truckers are contracted by Resolute to take the wood for a three-hour drive to Thunder Bay. Some truckers have gone out of business with no contracts. And the ones who have a contract, what must their expenses be having all that mileage and expense rather than taking their wood to our local mill?
Thank you for your attention to our concerns. We hope you and your government will deal fairly with this very important problem before it is too late!
Sincerely,
Margaret-Ann Hudson
Watten Township, Ont.