Trade Northern Ontario

Eyes on Growth

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Municipal, academic and industry leaders gathered Wednesday at Lakehead University to talk value-added forestry.

Eyes on growth
By ALANA TOULIN
The Chronicle Journal
Thursday, January 8, 2009
 
Municipal, academic and industry leaders gathered Wednesday at Lakehead University to talk value-added forestry.

The session was part of a series of discussions being held across the region to help the provincial government devise the Growth Plan for Northern Ontario. Since the process started in November, Northern leaders have discussed health, transportation, alternative energy, education and training, and mining.

Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle said the feedback on the individual aspects will be used to create a comprehensive plan to bolster the economy and spur new development.

“Developing the growth plan is something that I think is going to be the key to our economic development and economic future in Northern Ontario,” said Gravelle, adding it is key to have a plan “developed by Northerners for Northerners.”

“This is not Queen‘s Park or the provincial government coming to the North and saying this is what you should be doing in Northern Ontario,” he said.

“It‘s exactly the reverse of that.”

He is quick to point out this “will not be another report” with the potential to get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle . Rather, he said, it will be a concrete 25-year plan for the future that he hopes will be in place before the end of the year.

Thunder Bay Mayor Lynn Peterson described the session as a “lively” one where a broad range of experts discussed the importance of value-added forestry, thought by many to be a way to boost the slumping sector in the region.

Peterson cited the Centre for Reseach and Innovation in the Bio-Economy and the university‘s newly-opened Biorefining Initiative as examples of how Thunder Bay is looking increasingly toward this sector of the forestry industry.

“All of that works together with our primary forest industry to look at new products into the future, how small entrepreneurs need to be supported, and how research and innovation needs to be commercialized,” she said.

Lakehead University forestry professor Mathew Leitch has made value-adding a significant part of his research focus, and said there are a lot of opportunities to be had.

“If you look at Spain, they don‘t cut a single tree in their country, but yet they have a full value-added industry that they export world-wide,” he said, adding that if it can be done there, it can be done in Northwestern Ontario where resources are abundant.

“In Thunder Bay, we‘re particularly fortunate – we have the trees, we have the transport mechanisms, we have the service industry, plus we have highly-trained people to work in these facilities, and we have a university that produces forestry graduates.”

Growth Plan for Northern Ontario discussions continue today in Thunder Bay with a focus on the bio-economy.

The sessions move to North Bay, Jan. 21-22, to discuss agriculture and tourism, before wrapping up Jan. 28 in Timmins with a session on aboriginal economic development.

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