North to benefit from new OSB mill

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A new oriented strand board (OSB) mill being planned for the Meadow Lake area will be bringing new jobs to the north, as well as investment opportunities.

Construction of the new $220 million mill is expected to create 200 person-years of employment. Once completed, an estimated 260 additional jobs will be created, half in the mill, and the other half in spin-off areas such as harvesting and trucking.

The mill project is a partnership between B.C.-based Tolko Industries Ltd., which will own 75 per cent of the mill, and Saskatchewan's Crown Investments Corporation (CIC), which will own the remaining 25 per cent.

While the partnership agreement between Tolko and the CIC was signed in December, there is still room in the project for additional partners, explained Ted Boyle, executive director of communications for the CIC.

"It was one of the objectives in putting together the deal that there'd be an opportunity for people in the area to not only benefit from the jobs, but to also have a stake in the project," he said.

"The North West Communities and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council both have the opportunity to take up to just under 10 per cent of a share in this project. And that would come out of CIC's share. So what they can do is get involved in it in a very small way to start with, and build up their ownership to 10 per cent over a period of time if they want to. By CIC participating in the project, we've kind of made that possible for them to get involved with it," Boyle explained.

The North West Communities Boyle refers to is North West Communities Wood Products Ltd., a group of five area communities-Beauval, Green Lake, Ile-a-la-Crosse, Patuanak, and Pinehouse Lake - that have formed a partnership in order to get involved in the OSB mill project.

"The way the arrangement is, we've already concluded the deal with Tolko so that the mill can go ahead, and then [the North West Communities and Meadow Lake Tribal Council] can purchase up to 10 per cent of the project from us under a very good arrangement for them. And if they did, if they both chose to, they'd eventually each have just under 10 per cent and CIC would have five per cent. So they'd be substantial partners in the operation."

The North West Communities have already confirmed that they intended to take part in the mill project, but the Meadow Lake Tribal Council had yet to make their decision at press time.

Construction of the mill is expected to begin in the spring, with anticipated completion late in 2003. Once up and running, the mill will have a production capacity of 600 square feet of 3/8 inch OSB annually.