The meeting started off with a presentation from Eric Forget, a forestry consultant with the company Nova Silva, who was hired to give an assessment of the state of the forestry industry in the Pontiac.

“We had so many ideas about what we wanted to do with forestry . . .

that we had a consultant analyze these things and think about what is practical -about what would or won’t work- and put it in some kind of order, so we can move forward with a plan,” said MRC Warden Jane Toller while introducing Forget.

Forget started his presentation with an overview of the recent past and the present of the forestry industry.

The closure of the Smurfit Mill in Portage-du-Fort in 2008 caused much of the recent problems in the industry, despite the Pontiac being well suited to forestry.

The pandemic added to the forestry industry’s woes, with the amount of unharvested trees increasing over the last two years Specifically, 31 per cent of the volume of mature trees on public land were not harvested and on private land 84 per cent were not harvested, according to Forget.

“We can see that there are a lot of trees that are growing older and that could be harvested if people in the Pontiac wanted them,’’ said Forget.

Several types of trees are proliferating in the area except white pines, according to Forget.

He then went to outline three critical constraints impacting the present and the future of the lumber industry in the Pontiac.

The first one there is no market for hardwood pulp, which is a major barrier for the expansion of the industry in the Pontiac given the makeup of the trees in the area. Without the demand, there’s no way to attract investment, according to Forget.

“About sixty per cent of the hardwood you harvest is going to be pulp,” said Forget. “It’s very difficult for that to be economically viable.”

The second constraint Forget outlined is the lack of the necessary workforce in the Pontiac.

Forget stated that two decades of poor economic conditions in the Pontiac have prompted many workers to leave the region seeking other employment opportunities.

He said attracting labour to work in forestry should be one of the one main concerns of the Pontiac going forward.

“Forestry work is not easy work, so we need to make sure we provide good conditions for people working in the forest to try and restart the wheel,” said Forget.

The third constraint for the forestry industry in the Pontiac is the lack of mechanized harvesting equipment

“There are few contractors in the Pontiac with mechanized harvest equipment,” wrote Forget in his report. “Modern equipment such as harvesters are much more efficient but require large investments to purchase, as well as a properly trained workforce.”

There is also a huge demand right now for this kind of equipment, which adds to the difficulty for contractors trying to invest in new equipment.

He recommended going forward that the MRC keep this restraint in mind when looking for investors.

The next part of Forget’s presentation focused on what the future held for the forestry industry in Pontiac. Specifically, he broke down six forestry sectors where the Pontaic may have a future in.

The first was the “transformation sectors’’, which essentially just mean industries where the harvested raw materials from forestry are converted to secondary and tertiary products. This includes sawmills and industries that turn forestry by products into bioproducts, steam or energy.

According to the presentation, currently there is just one mill that is active in the MRC, Lefebvre et Pharand in Mansfield-et-Pontefract. There is another mill expected to be open in the fall, as well as other projects that are in the early stages of development.

A notable project in the transformation sector is the Fibre Pontiac project set to be based in Litchfield, which would include a biorefinery that would manufacture a variety of products from lumber.

The project has been attempting to attract investors for more than decade, and is now dependent on a potential major investment of around $100 million from the natural resource processing company, Renmatix, according to Forget.

“It’s a good project in the sense that it would use some pulpwood, but it is a bit of a long shot,” said Forget.

Forget’s advice for the Pontiac regarding the transformation sector is to continue to search for investors and advocate for projects that will boost demand for hardwood pulp.

He says that there are a lot of opportunities in the sector, as demand for the products and services it produces is high and supply has yet to catch up.

The second sector that has potential in the Pontiac are proximity forests.

Proximity forests are forestry operations that allow communities to make decisions and reap the benefits surrounding forestry development, however the concept is still being developed in practice.

Forget cautioned that this sector is still a relatively new concept, being that it was laid out in the Quebec 2013 Sustainable Forest Development Act.

There is currently an ongoing pilot project in Abitibi for proximity forests and Forget recommended that Pontiac await the conclusion of it before determining whether or not it would be viable to implement here.

The third potential sector that Forget mentioned is sugar maple production, which is essentially sugar production.

He said that there is potential for the region for commercial sugar production, however the provincial government, which is currently exploring the viability of the industry, needs to approve a project in the area for it to take off.

The fourth potential avenue for the Pontiac discussed by Forget is making use of the 10,000 hectares of forest (the TPI) the MRC manages. However again, the lack of a market for hardwood pulp poses a problem. Forget recommends that the MRC investigate ways to use the TPI that will further boost the viability of the forestry industry in the area.

The fifth forestry industry he mentioned that Pontiac could possibly expand was firewood. “There’s a lot of demand for firewood in the region,” said Forget. We have a surplus of quality pulp, everything is there to have a little industry,” said Forget.

However, the problems associated with a potential firewood industry is that firewood has limited value as a commodity and it would require large investment to get the required mechanized equipment.

The sixth and final forestry adjacent industry mentioned by Forget was recreation and tourism. “You guys have a very pristine area and lakes, which has to be maintained. There’s an opportunity there to have some economic development,” said Forget about the potential for tourism.

In conclusion Forget emphasised that the MRC continue to advocate for the forestry industry, however he reiterated that challenges remain.

“We need to focus on the fact that there is no market for pulpwood, so any projects we invest energy in should be those that use pulpwood.”

“ This can not be done as business as usual”, said Forget. He said the Pontiac will need to actively pursue new resources and ensure it regularly monitors the progress of the actions it takes going forward.

At the end of his remarks, the MRC passed a resolution accepting a detailed report on the Pontiac’s forestry industry authored by Forget and his company.

Tax assessments

Another issue that received a lot of attention at the MRC meeting was disputes over tax assessments.

Pat Goyette, a resident of Mansfield-et-Pontefract, took the opportunity during the public question period to dispute that his property tax had increased and he previously requested it be reviewed. Goyette believed that evaluation of his property was rising too quickly and was unreasonable.

Toller initially responded by saying that while the MRC does perform assessments of the value of properties, the actual rate of taxes is determined by the municipality the property is located in.

In an interview after the meeting Toller explained that the property values can increase the total tax paid by property owners.

“Also what has an impact is if renovations have taken place,” said Toller. “People are coming here, and they’re renovating, even existing residents. A lot of renovation took place during covid. Anytime there’s an upgrade it affects assessment and taxes.”

In response to Goyette’s remarks, Toller stated that a policy of incrementally introducing tax increases related to valuation should be introduced, especially given people moving into the Pontiac are raising property values through paying over the asking price or starting bidding wars. She stated that long term residents and those on fixed-incomes could have their tax increases incrementally phased-in over a three to four year period.

“I personally know that in other parts of Canada, especially in cities, where you have a big jump, to ease the burden, it is possible to phase it in,” said Toller about property tax increases. “So, in the period of time before the next assessment takes place, let’s say in three years, you could take that increase and just do it in incremental amounts. I’m going to follow up with that and see if we could do something like that in MRC.”

Relevant to the discussion, the MRC also hired two new property inspectors to assist with the future evaluations of property.

Other

In response to another public question, the MRC was asked to break down all the purchases through the $879, 289 it received form the covid emergency fund provided by the provincial government. Toller explained that there was no guidance provided by the province on how to spend the money, but stated that they were ensuring that they are spending the funds on worthwhile things.

The MRC provided a full list of expenses spent by the MRC using the covid assistance fund. As of now the MRC still has $172,775 left to spend.

A resolution on housing was passed, which requested that the provincial and federal government adapt their housing policies, which are currently geared towards urban areas, to rural areas.

Toller spoke about her visit to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Annual Conference and Trade Show in Regina.

Notably she stated she received confirmation that the Pontiac’s population had grown by 500 people from a census official.

Toller also mentioned her exposure of a waste-to-energy facility, a solar farm and a company that makes ice rinks greener and more efficient, all of which she hopes would be able to be implemented in the Pontiac.

“It was a great learning opportunity and a great opportunity to build relationships, and to hear about best practices,” said Toller about her attendance at the conference.

Various other routine resolutions were also passed. The next public MRC meeting will not be until August due to a scheduled break.

You can watch the full MRC meeting on the MRC Pontiac Facebook page.

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