Though the 2005 withdrawal of Tembec from the local economy is still a fresh wound for many in Smooth Rock Falls, a Quebec-based company’s plans for an independent $7.2 million value-added cedar facility are a healing salve, the mayor says.
“The phones in city hall have been ringing off the hook with local people asking how they can apply for a job,” Smooth Rock Falls Mayor Kevin Somer says.
“Residents are happy about this because it’s a great opportunity for them to return to work in a field they’re familiar with.”
Having been awarded an annual allotment of 50,000 cubic metres of cedar by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Hardy Cedar Lumber of Barraute, Quebec is looking to establish a processing facility in the Northern Ontario town of 1,300.
The facility will create up to 44 jobs, and will produce a variety of custom lumber products such as siding, shingles and fencing.
The proposed facility would be located in a portion of the former Tembec mill, though lease agreements are still being established between Hardy and Tembec. These agreements expected to be completed by the end of September, with the necessary renovations and equipment installation continuing through the winter for an official unveiling in March 2008.
The project has given hope to many of the 234 forestry employees who were put out of work when Tembec shut down the local pulp and paper mill. Many out-of-work residents have stayed in town on the chance that something like the Hardy proposal would emerge, Somer says.
“People didn’t want to leave town because this is their home, and they believed in its potential. Now, these are not high-paying union jobs like they had at Tembec, but they’ll be able to get back to work.”
The Hardy project comes fresh off the announcement of a separate $16 million project detailing the eventual construction of a hotel and a long-term seniors’ residence by Nightingale Premier Inc., a British firm.
Roughly $25 million in salaries were lost when Tembec shut its doors, although recent announcements including the hotel and cedar projects are due to reinstate $10 million worth of that earning potential, Somer says.
Between the proposed accommodation projects and the new cedar mill, he estimates half the jobs lost in the initial Tembec closure will be recovered within the next year or two.
The Hardy project has been in discussion for four years, even prior to the Tembec closure, though details have changed alongside local and federal economies.
Initial plans outlined the construction of a separate 10,000-square-foot site for the plant. The initial business plan also involved shipping up to 50 per cent of the finished products to the United States.
Following the resolution of the softwood lumber dispute last year, the proposed site was moved to the Tembec facility, and Hardy’s business plan had to be changed. Exports to the United States are now projected to make up from 1.5 per cent to 5 per cent of total sales.
As a result, the project was delayed and agreements for additional cedar from private wood lots had to be re-signed.
Although the plant is estimated to take up 25,000 feet of space, more than double the initial projection, Somer says it will likely accommodate the same amount of work.
The additional space in the Tembec site may allow Hardy to establish a second shift should the company be awarded an impending 50,000-cubic-metre allotment of tamarack. However, Somer says it is much too soon to pin any hopes on such speculation.
The Hardy cedar mill also has the potential to dovetail into a variety of other value-added opportunities for the town, according to Robert Manseau, the liaison between Hardy and Smooth Rock Falls.
“It really is a vision from the municipality to use this as a springboard, and it makes a lot of sense,” says Manseau, who is also a management consultant with the Timmins-based Commerce Management Group. “They want to use the Hardy project as a catalyst for secondary and tertiary growth, and if Hardy punches out seven million board feet a year, there’s the chance to use mulch from the bark and the raw material that’s on site and so on.”
