Duane Hicks
An initiative to paint a mural on part of the Resolute Forest Products’ mill here has been put on hold after the company indicated it has other plans for the property.
Emo resident Joanne Ogden, who is leading the effort to beautify the wall of the “lap” building that faces traffic coming into Canada from the U.S., is urging the public to send “constructive comments” to Resolute to show the company how necessary the mural is.
Shortly after getting the ball rolling on Facebook less than a month ago, Ogden spoke with a local Resolute rep, who “has been extremely helpful the entire time.”
“We did a tour of the wall; he told me what they might be able to help with,” she recalled.
“It had to go above him, obviously,” Ogden added. “And it went above him, obviously, and it sounded like a positive response.”
The excitement for the project continued to build on social media, as the request to do the mural went through Resolute’s legal department and then to its corporate management.
“So I didn’t get a response back probably until about four or five days ago,” Ogden noted Monday.
“It was a phone call passed down, unfortunately, through the poor guy who had been so helpful.”
The phone call indicated the company was not on board with the mural.
But Ogden didn’t accept that answer and sent multiple e-mails to various individuals at Resolute.
“I thought, ‘I’ll give these guys the benefit of the doubt. Maybe if they get it direct from a community member, maybe that will sway them,'” she reasoned.
Ogden got an e-mailed response late Friday which was negative.
“Resolute has made a significant and good faith effort over the past three years to find a successor owner/operator for the Fort Frances pulp mill and paper mill site,” wrote Seth Kursman, Resolute’s vice-president of Corporate Communications, Sustainability and Government Affairs.
“At this juncture, the company has begun to explore other options that would see the site being re-deployed in a positive manner relative to both economic and social use,” he added.
“We hope to be able to make more definitive public comment in the coming months.
“Given this situation, it is not possible to consider allowing the proposal made by some well-intended community members for a mural on one of the buildings to proceed at this time,” noted Kursman.
“Resolute recognizes that the site cannot remain in its current state and is working towards an outcome that will address this,” he concluded.
Ogden thought about what to do next over the weekend and decided to respond to Resolute, saying how disappointed she was.
“These buildings sit in disrepair, they’re a huge liability,” she stressed.
“Somebody was going to do something about it at no cost to them, and considering what they got out of the district while they were here, it’s rather disappointing,” she added.
Ogden said from her correspondence with Resolute, it seems there’s “something in the works” with the mill here. But whatever that may be won’t occur for several months.
“Which gets us to winter, which means it goes another year before somebody does anything about it,” she remarked.
“They agreed with me that the buildings can’t stand in disrepair and that they were working toward a solution,” added Ogden.
“I’m going to hold them accountable,” she vowed. “What’s the timeline on the solution then?
“If you’re going to paint the wall and fix up the wall, and you don’t want us painting on it, fine. At least the wall gets fixed.
“But you still need to consider other concerns,” she added, noting one example is the mill-owned white house along the four-laners that now sits empty.
Ogden is sharing her correspondence with Resolute with the public and media outlets, and is encouraging those people who also are disappointed to follow the same process as she did and e-mail Resolute at seth.kursman@resolutefp.com
But she stressed the public should be “respectful about it” and stick to constructive comments.
“You’ve got to sometimes stir the pot until it boils a bit,” Ogden reasoned. “Maybe we will get a different response, maybe not.
“But at least you can say that you didn’t just tuck your hands in your pockets and grumble,” she noted.
“You actually did something about it.”
Ogden first started the mural initiative when she saw a lot of complaints about the wall as local residents and tourists were coming into Canada, and she agreed with them that the wall is “unsightly.”
“My frustration is people find it easy to throw rocks but nobody will do anything about it,” she said.
“It’s all good to complain but what’s your solution?”
So Ogden decided to take the initiative and rally volunteers on social media to start planning to paint it, and garnered plenty of public support.
The plan has been to paint a mural depicting life in Northwestern Ontario–and not simply Fort Frances–on the wall.
There’s been discussion on Facebook about what the mural should include. Ideas mentioned so far include a sunset and a silhouette of a moose, a Canadian flag, and a blue heron.
Ogden said she’d like it to be free of politics and advertising.
Shawna Holmlund currently is working on a plan for the mural and sketching ideas.
Community members also have been lining up equipment and materials, as well as establishing protocol for working on the bridge.
“There’s been lots of stuff happening behind the scenes after that first bit of positive reinforcement,” said Ogden.
The plan also has been for the two walls on the other side of the “lap” building (the ones facing Canada Border Services) to get new paint, as well.
Ogden figured these are a good spots to paint the names of the individuals who helped with the mural project.
