Whiskey Jack decision imminent, says Minister.(FORESTRY)

Ontario Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield is promising a swift resolution on logging issues in northwestern Ontario's contested Whiskey Jack Forest.

The province is moving toward a new co-operative Sustainable Forest License arrangement involving industry, First Nation and area communities at the table. "It's just a far better process," says Cansfield.

In May, the ministry and Grassy Narrows First Nation signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jump-start new talks on developing a forest management plan.

"I'm pleased to be able to move forward with that," says Cansfield. AbitibiBowater which withdrew from logging in the Whiskey Jack, will be involved in the process, "but the co-operative is far better way to go."

Kenora Forest Products is one of several parties attempting to secure cutting rights in the Whiskey Jack that once belonged to the former Abitibi-Consolidated, which closed its Kenora mill in 2006.

A five-year blockade by the Grassy Narrows First Nation, backed by environmental groups, forced the company to look elsewhere for logs.

When asked the timing of the official announcement of the co-operative model, Cansfield responded, "Stay tuned, we're working hard with Grassy Narrows and I would think sooner rather later."

The Grassy Narrows First Nation is 80 kilometres northeast of Kenora.

The City of Kenora is anxious to see that forest freed up for logging. Three mills have closed in recent years resulting in 600 job losses.

The inability to secure a continuous flow of wood supply is holding back a $30 million expansion to the temporarily shuttered Kenora Forest Products. Weyerhaeuser's laminated strand lumber plant is struggling after laying off half its workforce.

Kenora Mayor Compton says that during a July meeting with the minister in Dryden, Cansfield directed comments to Al Wilcox, the MNR's northwestern Ontario regional manager "that she wanted the license dealt with very promptly.

"She was quite definite when she spoke to him that wasn't something that was going on the back burner.

"If any minister can get it moving, I think she will," says Compton.

Senior executives from Prendiville Industries, the parent company for Kenora Forest Products had met with Cansfield in Toronto in early July, just before meeting with Compton in Dryden.

Compton says the minister appreciated the local economic significance of the mill's ability to source an economically-accessible wood supply. He was told by Cansfield that Weyer-haeuser and Kenora Forest Products had been given letters of assurance on a sufficient supply of wood.

He read a letter from Cansfield saying, "It is the Ministry's intention to transfer the Whiskey Jack Sustainable Forest License to that new co-operative entity as soon as possible to ensure that continuous flow of wood fibre from the Whiskey Jack."

Compton says Cansfield told him that both Weyerhaeuser and Kenora Forest Products have letters of assurance on wood supply, but there were "other considerations" that may factor into the decision that she wasn't at liberty to divulge.

Former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci acted as advisor to Cansfield in the negotiations.

Idaho-based Boise, a U.S. paper company, stopped buying fibre harvested in the Whiskey Jack Forest which the Grassy Narrow First Nations claims as its traditional lands. Whiskey Jack logs were being processed at a pulp mill in Fort Frances, then trucked across the Rainy River to International Falls, Minn.

After Grassy Narrows declared a moratorium on loging without its consent, Boise stated it would only accept pulp from forestry operations approved by the local community.

Environmental groups like the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and Ammesty International claim there is clear-cut logging within the Grassy Narrows' traditional territory without local consent.

The consultation issue has become a hot topic across northwestern Ontario because of the spate of junior mineral exploration companies operating in the Kenora, Dryden, Fort Frances and Rainy River areas.

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www.mnr.gov.on.cu

www.grassynarrowsfirstnation.myknet.org

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business

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