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“The (company) people involved in this are calling me quite often to see if there‘s been any decision,” said Ministry of Natural Resources area supervisor Doug Haldane. Buchanan wants to set up four permanent harvesting camps in the mostly Crown-owned Kenogami forest, which supplies most of the wood to the company‘s Terrace Bay pulp mill. The proposal was put on hold more than a year ago after opponents said the camps would employ only out-of-town loggers and do nothing to benefit the economies of Kenogami-area communities like Longlac and Geraldton. The MNR was willing to give Buchanan a permit to establish the camps, but that process has been halted while the Ministry of Environment considers a “bump-up” request to have the proposal subject to a full environmental assessment. Haldane said he expects MOE to decide in a week or two whether or not to grant that request. Despite the market downturn, logging is continuing in the Kenogami, said Haldane. Without a permit for permanent camps, Buchanan is employing a “free-use policy” that allows for up to five trailers per work site. The trailers must pick up and move when loggers move on to another cutting block. The proposal for the permanent camps calls for up to 40 trailers per site. Buchanan spokesman Hartley Multamaki said bush camps “are a common way of doing business.” “The rationale for having camps out in the field is that you don‘t want people driving long distances back to town after working eight to 10 hours in the bush,” said Multamaki. Before Buchanan bought the Terrace Bay mill from Neenah Paper in 2006, Kenogami loggers were company employees and made daily commutes to and from bush operations. Prior to selling the mill, Neenah said that system had become too costly and was a main reason the operation had been losing money. Buchanan contracts out its logging operations. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |