Dear Editor,

In my first months as the elected warden, I held a forestry meeting in Fort Coulonge which was attended by 96 people. It was perhaps the first meeting of its kind in 10 years. At that meeting I said that forestry was not dead and that to revitalize the Pontiac we needed to participate in forestry again. There was a lot of negativity and understandable frustration at that meeting but we focused on looking ahead and putting the past behind. The way to move forward would not be through . . .

building another large pulp and paper mill, but through diversifying and where it made economic sense, utilizing new technologies and modernizing existing mill sites.

Shortly after that I created a forestry committee which was dynamic because it was mainly citizens with strong forestry experience. We met every two months and accomplished a lot.

As I began to speak to others at forestry conferences in Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec about the Pontiac re-opening forestry the reaction was mixed. Some people told me that it was an impossible challenge. I have learned that forestry in Quebec is highly political and competitive.

When I first met with Pierre Dufour, the Minister of Forestry, I told him of our plan to re-enter forestry and also said that with 40 percent of the Outaouais wood located in the Pontiac, that we wanted to be the solution for the excessive pulp and biomass. He told me that we would be part of the solution. In this way the government would save millions of dollars not needing to subsidize the transportation to Temiskaming or Thurso, and it would reduce the carbon footprint. I spoke to him about the need for a new de-centralized forestry regime to ensure that transformations could take place where the wood was being cut.

I presented a lecture in Quebec City on the revitalization of the Pontiac through forestry. I am currently serving on the Federation of Quebec Municipalities Forestry Committee and the Outaouais Crise committee. This led to Luc Lebel’s report which prompted Minister Dufour to make a recent announcement.

The first announcement was about the creation of a new de-centralized virtual project office and the other was that the industrialists needed to work together. At that announcement, Minister Dufour referred to the fact that “Madame Toller has projects that they are considering.” I was surprised and delighted that he mentioned this. This shows the progress we have made.

The Pontiac has come a long way and we are now being strongly considered on many levels in forestry.

For the past three years I have been working with three former mill sites which each has a plan to re-open. There are major private investors involved in all three sites. The decisions will be made this year by the provincial government but it will be possible for them to complement each other rather than to compete which is what the government is looking for. We have an opportunity with the Litchfield Bio-Park which is still being studied and involves new technology.

The MRC Pontiac has submitted a plan for a community forest which provides great opportunities for forest entrepreneurs, tourism, sylviculture and a forestry school. Some nearby examples of a successful community forest is Algonquin Park and other smaller ones in Lanark County.

Forestry built the Pontiac and made us the largest, wealthiest county in Canada in the late 1800s. We have more species than any other region and the transformation opportunities are limitless. If one of these projects moves forward, many others will follow. We deserve to be in the forest again.

Jane Toller

MRC Pontiac Warden