Jeff Green | May 03, 2012
In spite of the announcement that the Norampac Trenton paper mill will be closing on June 1, there is still hope that a contract settlement will be reached with 137 workers at the plant, which will allow the mill to keep operating, according to Tom Richardson, the general manager of the Mazinaw Lanark Foresters Association (MLFA)
“Talks are still continuing as far as I know,” said Richardson, “and therefore the mill closure is not a done deal.”
The Trenton Norampac mill is a contributing member of the MLFA, so if it pulls out of its membership that will have an impact on the association’s budget.
More importantly, if the company follows through with closure plans, it would have a major impact on the independent family logging operators in MLFA, who will lose their only customer for poplar and birch logs. Until recently, those logs have been sold to Norampac as pulp wood.
“The hardwoods, the maples and oaks, can be sold as fuel wood, but there is no alternate market for the poplar and birch that our members harvest,” said Richardson, “so if the plant does indeed close it will affect our members in a very direct way.”
The closest alternative pulp mill is in Thurso, Quebec, but shipping costs to that mill are prohibitive.
Mazinaw Lanark Forest Inc. is a co-operative corporation of foresters who hold licenses to harvest stands of timber on crown land in L&A, Frontenac and Lanark Counties. By the terms of the logging agreements the corporation's members have with the provincial government, they must adhere to strict forestry standards, so they will have to continue to harvest poplar and birch in addition to more lucrative species in order to ensure the long-term viability of the crown land forest.
So they may find themselves stuck with logs that have no market value and still need to be dealt with in some fashion, which will add costs to the foresters' operations.
Norampac announced plans to close the mill on April 12, but has issued no public statements on the matter since that date.
The mill received $3.3 million in provincial funding as part of a $14 million upgrade in 2009.
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