Howard Hampton says communities have 3-6 months to help keep Barwick mill open

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Alarm bells should be going off at every council meeting very soon. According to Howard Hampton, Member of Prov. Parliament for Kenora-Rainy River, Ainsworth’s Oriented Strand Board Mill in Barwick is hanging by a thread.
Hampton said that, “We have 3-6 months to do things right to keep Barwick open.” The we he was referring too was all the municipal leaders present at the Rainy River District Municipal Association annual meeting in Rainy River on Saturday.
Hampton explained that the shut down by Buchanan Forest Products left Abitibi-Bowater in a real dilemma. “They used to get all their chips for making paper from them,” said Hampton. Now Abitibi is getting the jack pine from local timber lots. While that sounds great for local loggers, Hampton said the desperate need for the chips has seen Abitibi skipping right by stands of poplar and birch; wood that Ainsworth needs to make OSB in Barwick.
Since Abitibi controls the wood supply and what is cut locally, Hampton said that has forced Ainsworth to get wood from east of Fort Frances and that has seen the cost per cubic metre go from $45 to $80.
“Ainsworth has done a great deal to try and keep the Barwick mill open and would like to see it stay open, but costs are making that harder to do,” said Hampton.
Hampton encouraged all municipalities to talk to Ainsworth and Abitibi and try and get them to the table try and rectify the wood supply problem. He also urged RRDMA to push the government to do some of the things for the forestry sector like Manitoba has. “Manitoba saw problems coming and made some major changes.”
In that province new timber pricing models are being used. It creates unique timber dues by calculating them each month based upon the preceding month’s forest product commodity prices. The model sets the minimum base timber dues to charge when markets are low and high when com. prices are higher.
Manitoba Hydro also offers extremely favourable electricity rates to large customers like Tembec. This has helped them deal with the downturn in markets and the high Canadian dollar.
Manitoba has also offered the industry several tax breaks. All of these actions have saved the industry there all the while mill after mill has been shutting down in this region.
Hampton said he has spoken to the regional Director of MNR Al Wilcox and that he is aware there is a problem with the lumber supply here. “But he needs to hear from you all. I think in 3-6 months we can turn this around.”