SUDBURY—Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory is taking another crucial step in making a pellet plant operation in Nairn Centre a reality. Enaadmaagehjik (Wikwemikong Development Corporation) is receiving an investment of $217,000 from FedNor “to support final planning studies for a proposed pellet manufacturing plant and to attract an equity partner.”
The announcement was made in Sudbury by The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services and the minister responsible for FedNor as part of 13 investments being made in Northeastern Ontario. Minister Hajdu was joined by MPs Viviane Lapointe, Marcus Powlowski, Marc G. Serré, and Terry Sheehan in making the 13 announcements totalling $6,018,795.
“These are concrete investments in key sectors for our regional economy,” said Minister Hajdu in making the announcements. “This will help local businesses innovate, grow and create a number of good-paying jobs for families in Northern Ontario for years to come. We have a plan to grow an economy that works for everyone in Northern Ontario and helps people pay their bills.”
“FedNor continues to demonstrate its critical importance in job and economic development in Northern Ontario by funding strategic projects like these ones,” said Nickel Belt MP Serré. “I’m looking forward to seeing the continued growth of our region with FedNor’s support.”
Specifically, this project will include outreach and partner development, electrification and environmental studies, a business plan update and drilling to confirm water availability for fire suppression systems.
“We actually received the funds quite a while ago and have been working on the project,” said Enaadmaagehjik general manager Mary Lynn Odjig, who noted Enaadmaagehjik was very pleased by the confidence expressed by FedNor and the federal government in the project.
That project is a Wiikwemkoong proposal to build a 150,000 metric tonne biomass pellet plant facility in Nairn Centre, adjacent to the EACOM Timber Corporation sawmill.
According to the proposal plan, “development of the plant is considered a regional project, which will provide a market for sawmill and logging waste. The facility will open another market for low valued species such as poplar and birch, species that have not been utilized or have been bypassed because of market conditions effecting other users of the forest. The facility will create approximately 35-45 jobs in the plant, an additional 100 forest sector jobs harvesting and 50 construction jobs. This project will provide much needed employment to the region of Northeastern Ontario.”
The fibre supply is key, notes the proposal, and Nairn Centre really fits the bill as it is centrally located between three potential supply points from which to draw fibre; haul distance or distance to deliver fibre supply. The area also has the infrastructure nearby, close to rail, deep water port, highway access. Access to sufficient power was also critical in selecting a site for the project.
Wiikwemkoong is already in the forefront of utilization of wood pellets as a heating source in their community.
Ms. Odjig noted that it is still too soon to provide a date for the plant opening, but that the project is still well on track and the study funding will help to move that date closer.
