STEPHEN RICCIO
PONTIAC Feb. 3, 2021
While the fate of the Énergie Davidson project remains in the hands of provincial authorities, MRC Warden Jane Toller provided an update on the conditions surrounding the potential reopening of the Davidson Sawmill.
Toller explained that it has the attention of Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks Pierre Dufour and Minister of Economy and Innovation Pierre Fitzgibbon, as the results of an independent analysis are . . .
awaiting review. An independent consultant was paid for by the province to tour the sawmill last year, and the consultants finished doing so at the end of December.
“I was speaking to someone with MEI yesterday just for an update and I was told in the next few weeks, they’ll see the results and they’ll analyze the results and [Pierre Fitzgibbon] will make his decision,” she explained in a Feb. 28 interview. “So basically I think they want to make sure that this will be profitable.”
Toller said that the project has become much needed for forestry producers in the entire Outaouais after the December 2019 closure of Fortress Mill in Thurso. Transportation costs have consequently skyrocketed for forestry producers who are still seeking to deliver their products to mills. She said that she had heard positive news regarding a potential new buyer of the closed Thurso mill.
“One solution would be the reopening of Fortress but we definitely need to have a mill in the western Outaouais which would be Pontiac, and most of the wood is here,” she said.
The project is still awaiting word from the province on the approval of cutting rights for pine that will be essential for the mill’s operation. Sawmill co-owner Bruno St-Cyr told The Equity in June that he had already secured pulp wood cutting rights.
Toller explained that the pine cutting flights would likely come after the project has been approved by provincial officials.
“I would say that usually there’s an order to these things,” she said. “At one time historically Davidson mill had cutting rights but it was closed for a long period of time so it lost it’s cutting rights. So when you get new cutting rights, usually it goes hand in hand with the approval of the project.”
An agreement is already in place to sell electricity to Hydro Quebec, and Toller said the plant would generate 9.5 megawatts of power.
Much of the MRC council’s public discussion in recent months had been the conditions of opening a biopark at the Pontiac Regional Industrial Park, as Toller noted that there hasn’t been much debate or discussion on the status of Énergie Davidson.
The Equity reached out to St-Cyr for an interview, but did not hear back in time for print.
