Time is of the essence to act and get the idled Fort Frances Mill back to producing pulp and paper.
Unifor is calling on the provincial government to get involved and support the community and the forest industry.
Local National Representative Stephen Boon says there was a belief that Resolute Forest Products was being cooperative and was truly interested in selling the facility if the right buyer came out.
Boon says restrictions contained in a sale agreement to sell the mill to Riversedge Developments clearly restricts a buyer to produce pulp and paper, essentially killing the mill.
He adds the government can’t shame a company to do the right thing, but they can apply pressure.
“The province continues their wood licensing, the province controls their regulations, their road money going forward, wood consumption. All of those kind of things are controlled and obviously because of the loans that were forgiven, the province at the end of the day carries a big stick and can also work with Resolute to make it whole.”
Boon is urging the government to quickly intervene, noting re-starting the mill would see 600 direct jobs restored by next year.
“We’ve lost almost 15 permanent closures in the region in the last 15 years. The wood is there. To create a new mill from scratch is just not financially viable for most companies because it would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars.”
Boon notes Resolute has received millions of dollars from the province yet has rejected every proposal for renewed mill operations and instead sold the mill property to the re-purposing company.
Boon says once Riversedge Developments starts taking equipment out, that mill will be worth nothing.
He states there’s a growing movement towards producing brown paper, stressing the facility is perfectly fitted for that new reality.
Unifor says it shares the concerns of the people of Fort Frances over the poor outcomes experienced at some of Riversedge’s other former industrial properties, including the recent leaning toward a half-baked marijuana grow-op scheme.
To hear more from Stephen Boon, visit the Audio link below.
