Bronwyn Eyre, the then minister of Energy and Resources with reps from Paper Excellence at the mill site in 2021. The pulp mill will not re-open, but the OSB mill is to start construction next year. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

New OSB mill

Increased wood supply ups odds of success for new mill

Sep 18, 2024 | 5:00 PM

One of the biggest benefits of oriented strand board mills is their ability to take remnant wood from other operations and turn what might be something considered defective and make a building product out of it.

That is certainly one of the attractions for the Meadow Lake Tribal Council’s investment division, which is part of One Sky Forest Products, and recently announced plans for construction of a new mill outside of Prince Albert in 2025.

“It will be synergistic with the sawmills, with the Carrot River sawmill and the Big River Mill,” said Al Balisky, president and CEO of MLTC Industrial Investments.

The plan for an OSB mill near Prince Albert was first floated publicly in 2021 as the province of Saskatchewan promised 845,000 cubic meters of supply for an OSB mill.

Originally, the OSB plant was supposed to share resources with the long-closed pulp mill site, which was also supposed to open with an annual allowable cut of 1.8 million cubic metres of softwood.

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The pulp mill is not feasible, Paper Excellence confirmed last week, but that might have actually helped improve the odds of success for the OSB plant.

“We saw the Paper Excellence story appeared to not be going too far, too fast,” Balisky said. “The exit of Paper Excellence and their pulp mill from that site, that certainly has made it strengthen the project.”

The province has now increased the supply of wood for OSB to 1.2 million cubic metres.

“The availability of fibre is critical. That’s the first thing. If there’s no resource to work with, there’s no project,” he stated.

Timber in the western half of the province is well-used and integrated. The existing mills in Meadow Lake use supply efficiently but that has been lacking in the center and the east.

The plan for the new mill still includes using some existing infrastructure at the pulp mill site and accessing the nearby electric and natural gas grids and the rail line.

“There will be really good use of assets that are already in place without having to bring in anything new to an industrial site,” Balisky explained.

The environmental requirements have already been met but some permits to build and operate will be applied for as that stage nears.

“The essential aspects have already been undertaken, so that’s why we can move fairly quickly moving forward.”

Balisky understands that the community at large in Prince Albert has taken an ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ approach, thanks to multiple previous announcements around the pulp mill.

“These projects are large and so there’s still lots of effort to be undertaken, but now we’re going to try to be something different than the prior story. The goal is to get something going on,” he said.

The Prince Albert business community is also looking forward to the mill construction and the economic boost that will come with operations.

“It’s fantastic news. We lost that industry for so many years here in Prince Albert. And so we’re going to have to rebuild that up,” said Patti Hughes, director of the Prince Albert & District Chamber of Commerce.

For decades, the pulp mill was a staple employer in the community until it closed in 2006, ending operations and about 2,000 jobs at the same time.

The current owner of the site is Paper Excellence but the company confirmed to paNOW last week that they do not plan to re-open, they plan to sell the site.

The OSB mill on the other hand will create about 800 direct and in-direct jobs and that is something the Chamber is happy about.

“But what industry means to our community, is a strong healthy economy, right, and it helps just bolters bolsters that.” said Hughes.

“It’s what it means to the person who’s selling TV’s in town, it’s what it means to that small little bistro on Central Avenue. All of them will feel the trickle down of this right, and so it is such positive news for our business community here and our economy.”

One Sky was formed in 2020 by Montreal Lake Business Ventures, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, Big River First Nation and Tatanka Oyate Holdings, who brought in Peak Renewables Ltd. – a British Columbia forest products company – as an industry shareholder.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com