Duane Hicks
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests is busy working with stakeholders to modernize forest tenure and develop Enhanced Sustainable Forest Licence agreements.
But Rainy River District feels control of the Crossroute Forest needs to be wrested from Resolute Forest Products sooner than later to save the local economy.
“We are pro-ESFL but right here and now, an ESFL doesn’t get it done,” Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig told Bert Hennessey, MNRF regional manager of tenure implementation, during the annual general meeting of the Rainy River District Municipal Association on Saturday in Emo.
“We have asked the premier [Kathleen Wynne] and the minister [Bill Mauro] to intervene and provide for a conditional wood supply for anybody who is interested in purchasing the Fort Frances mill,” McCaig noted.
“Because I know you have identified that maybe from a ministry staff perspective, they’ve done an OK job managing the forest . . . but globally, for us, it isn’t good,” he added.
“This isn’t an us-or-them situation in regards to Atikokan,” McCaig stressed.
“There’s more than enough wood in the Crossroute Forest to have a successful sawmill in Atikokan and run the facility in Fort Frances from the honey hole, the Crossroute Forest, not from wood that Resolute wants to foist upon the deal that comes from somewhere else and is the high-price cost.”
McCaig said the local coalition of municipalities and First Nations expects that the Crown resource will be managed in such a way that it will benefit them.
“We believe there’s a good solution out there, a solution that benefits this area and Atikokan,” he noted.
“This conditional wood supply has to be offered to anyone that wants to purchase this mill, and there are people that are interested in this mill,” he remarked.
McCaig said the Liberal Party line is that they don’t get involved in business-to-business transactions. But the province has gotten involved with Resolute in the past, providing $25 million for a biomass boiler, for example.
Minister Mauro or the premier could write an order, and provide for the conditional wood supply and help the mill start going again, McCaig added, to a round a applause from RRDMA attendees.
Hennessey said that in the Northwest Region, the current priority areas include the Kenogami Forest, Lake Nipigon Forest, and Lac Seul Forest.
The tenure file for Lake Nipigon, for instance, could be finalized in the next six months.
Once that is done, Hennessey said he may get the “green light” to start working on the Crossroute Forest.
“The step before that is we want to make sure that the next tenure file that we go towards is ‘low-hanging fruit,’ I call it,” he explained.
“Something where everybody wants to move because if there’s one party that doesn’t want to move, it will be so frustrating.
“We need to work at the front end to say, if someone’s got a problem, what is the problem and deal with that problem before we even get started,” Hennessey added, noting that if everybody is willing, the process could be much shorter.
But he also said the Whiskey Jack Forest could be next.
“There are other forests that may not have as an acute issue as what you’re dealing with,” Hennessey conceded.
“But Kenora Forest Products would argue that the Whiskey Jack Forest is important to their mill.”
Fort Frances Coun. Ken Perry stressed there’s no local economic stability for the municipalities, First Nations, and logging contractors if everything goes from this area to Thunder Bay—and yet Resolute and the province seem to downplay this.
Hennessey explained that companies think globally. But once a new tenure model is in place, the new forest management company resulting from it is “very local.”
He added forest tenure reform is a “tough process to go through,” and his limited staff constantly are under pressure from issues that are happening all over which are similar to those in Fort Frances.
Coming up with agreements involves many stakeholders, including numerous First Nations, municipalities, and industry partners, and take considerable time.
The Lake Nipigon Forest ESFL agreement has taken 24 months.
“You can understand the practical reality of trying to implement these things are really difficult,” said Hennessey.
Fort Frances Coun. Wendy Brunetta suggested that if the real issue in getting a timely start to the whole process is limited staffing, perhaps the minister could show support for the district’s request by hiring more staff.
Meanwhile, Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association president Dave Canfield said NOMA is continuing to lobby hard for forest tenure reform.
“If a company is not going to use the wood, you lose the wood,” he summarized.
Canfield maintained a big roadblock is bureaucracy in the Ontario government, noting that if forest tenure reform was taking place in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or Alberta, it would be solved by now.
He added more opportunities are lost by indecision than wrong decisions, but Ontario bureaucrats are concerned making the wrong decisions will get them fired.
Reading a message from local MPP Sarah Campbell, constituency assistant Matt Soprovich said she is pushing the premier and Mauro to “do the right thing by attaching the Crossroute Forest wood rights to the Fort Frances mill.”
“This has been very much a step by step process, and I believe the message has been loud and clear that Fort Frances stands strong in its resolve to get that mill operating once again,” Soprovich read.
“I have no doubt it was the persistent pressure put forth by all of us that resulted in the mill being heated this winter.
“But this is only the first step,” Soprovich read. “We have much more to do and we have to work quickly.
“The united front has been a strong force and we must not relent until wood rights are returned to their rightful place—here, benefitting the hard-working people of this district,” he noted.
