New mill starts ups in Ontario are still waiting for a wood supply

Atikokan Renewable Fuels feels their plan to restart the defunct Fibratech plant to produce wood pellets has been severely hampered by Ontario's competitive wood supply process.

Ontario created a competition process for unused and underutilized forest species. 115 applications were received and now the new Ministry of Northern Development, Mimes and Forests expects it will take 6 months to review all the applications.

Atikokan Renewable Fuels wants to design its pellet-making machinery to take best advantage of the fibre mix they will be handling. “We do not know what fibre supply we will be getting, so we are unable to get our machines approved for production,” said Atikokan Renewable Fuels’ Ed Fukushima.

White River Forest Products is also working on securing more than 550,000 cubic metres of Crown fibre supply to restart the former Domtar mill. The company (a partnership between businessman Jeff Butler, the Town of White River’s economic development department, and the Pic Mobert First Nation) plan to go beyond just producing wood pellets, and would like to use the wood fibre to run a co-generation facility to produce heat and power.

Right now Jeff Butler says much of their future plans depend on the successful approval of their application to the Ontario Power Authority under the Feed-in Tariff Program for the heat and power.

Read more:

Wood supply wait means delay for Atikokan Renewable Fuels (Atikokan Progress)

Renewable energy in the works for White River (Northern Ontario Business)