Today representatives from the Town of Fort Frances met with Natural Resources and Forestry Minister John Yakabuski and Northern Development, Mines, and Energy Minister Greg Rickford about the future of the Fort Frances mill and the allocation of wood fibre in the Crossroute Forest.
The ministers conveyed their understanding of the town’s concerns about recent revelations about the Fort Frances mill properties and expressed their interest in working with the community and other stakeholders to put in place a process to determine the wood fibre needs of current and future forest industry participants in the district.
The town understands that internal meetings are slated between the two ministries for next week and looks forward to sharing more information with the community when it is able to do so.
The town will continue to be engaged with the province on this matter and looks forward to further productive discussions geared toward protecting the key economic drivers of the Rainy River District.
Mayor June Caul wishes to express her thanks to local MPP Greg Rickford’s office for facilitating today’s meeting on such short notice.
The town’s delegation consists of Mayor Caul, Couns. Andrew Hallikas and Douglas Judson, and CAO Doug Brown.
They are attending the conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and have met with numerous ministries on priorities for Fort Frances and the district.
