(The Canadian Press)

By Alison Sandstrom

Forestry Future

P.A. pulp mill wants surety amid longer term timber supply questions

Jun 1, 2021 | 7:00 AM

Amid hints of an impending boom in the Prince Albert and area forestry sector, concerns over timber supply and who’s allowed to harvest it remain. After comments from Mayor Greg Dionne pushing the province to grant new proposed forestry operations access to local wood, the owner of the Prince Albert pulp mill says much still needs to be worked out when it comes to timber supply for their own operation.

Paper Excellence, the company that bought the shuttered Prince Albert pulp mill in 2011, currently has access to just over a quarter of the entire annual allowable cut in the Prince Albert Timber Supply area. That conditional agreement, which allows them to harvest up to 779,000 cubic meters per year, expires at the end of this year, unless the mill reopens, Minister of Energy and Resources Bronwyn Eyre told paNOW.

Meanwhile Paper Excellence has announced its intention to reopen the mill in 2023, but says it needs assurance it’ll have access to wood in the long term in order to do that.

“We’re making a very, very large investment into the restart of that facility,” Graham Kissask, Paper Excellence Vice President of Corporate Communications told paNOW. “And we need surety of fiber flow in the long term to give us confidence that it makes sense to spend that money.”

Kissack said a team from the company is currently in discussions with government and key stakeholders on the future of its timber supply in the Prince Albert area.

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Asked if the company saw opportunities for other companies to enter the P.A. forestry market, Kissack said “we certainly hope so.

“We believe Saskatchewan has robust forest resources and we think there’s opportunity to improve the significance of P.A.’s forest economy,” he said.

He added there is “a lot of interdependency” between a pulp mill and other forest industries.

Meanwhile Minister of Energy and Resources Bronwyn Eyre told paNOW the government wants “all workable projects to move forward and thrive,” but emphasized there’s a process that needs to be followed and it isn’t “the wild west.”

Eyre said timber allocations, like the one the government has with Paper Excellence are binding contracts.

“We can’t as a government be in the business of breaking contracts, Paper Excellence or any other interested company would not be very trusting of a government or an investment climate where that happens,” Eyre said. “I’ve made no secret of that. I’ve spoken to the Mayor a number of times… and yet there continues to be the suggestion that we break the contract, which would obviously be irresponsible.”

If Paper Excellence does not reopen the mill by December of 2021, its timber allocation will be available to other projects, said Eyre. She noted she was aware of several interested parties and named One Sky Forest Products as an example. According to the company’s website it intends to start producing OSB products in Prince Albert during the first quarter of 2022. The company appears to be the massive forestry manufacturing facility Mayor Greg Dionne announced during the municipal election campaign, but declined to name.

With files from Glenn Hicks

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alison.sandstrom@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alisandstrom