Chapleau branding its natural assets.Community members and economic development leaders know Chapleau has many of the same economic challenges as other communities throughout the North. It also has some unique opportunities. "Our mainstay is the rail industry and the wood manufacturing industry," says Sylvie Albert, economic development officer for the Town of Chapleau. "Chapleau, as a northern community, is looking at diversifying its economic base." One of the most recent announcements involved the sale of the Weyerhaeuser mill to Quebec-based Tembec. On Nov. 3, Tembec announced it was buying the mill for $26 million (Cdn), including working capital. The Chapleau sawmill sawmill, installation or facility in which cut logs are sawed into standard-sized boards and timbers. The saws used in such an installation are generally of three types: the circular saw, which consists of a disk with teeth around its edge; the band saw, which has a softwood softwood Timber obtained from coniferous trees (mainly of the pine and fir families). With the exception of bald cypress, tamarack, and larch, softwood trees are evergreens. allocation of approximately 524,000 cubic metres Noun 1. cubic metre - a metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 1000 liters cubic meter, kiloliter, kilolitre metric capacity unit - a capacity unit defined in metric terms per year, a production capacity of 100 million board feet of lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to annually and employs close to 140 people. The acquisition will boost Tembec's annual lumber capacity to over 1.8 billion board feet, including two Nexfor sawmills located in Northwestern Quebec. A strategic plan put together by the community a few years ago identified the priorities for the community for years to follow, including five initiatives for 2003/2004. Topping the list is branding the community based on one of its strongest attractions, the game preserve. The plan is to brand the area as the "gateway" to the largest Crown game preserve in the world, says Albert. "We have a series of projects going on with that," she says. "This year, we are trying to encourage more entrepreneurs to offer more products in the Crown game preserve, such as guiding, canoeing canoeing, sport of propelling a canoe through water. John MacGregor, an English barrister and founder of the Royal Canoe Club (est. 1865), is generally credited with being the initiator of modern sport canoeing. , ATV (1) (Advanced TV) An early name for the digital TV standard proposed by the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service (ACATS). See ACATS. See also ATV Forum. (2) (Analog TV) Refers to the NTSC, PAL and SECAM analog TV standads. riding and so on." Another project looks at more value-added options for its local wood industry. Although Chapleau Co-generation Ltd. uses some of the shavings shavings curly wafers of wood produced when trimming wood with a plane; used as bedding for horses. See also sawdust. and bark bark, sailing vessel bark or barque (both: bärk), sailing vessel with three masts, of which the mainmast and the foremast are square-rigged while the mizzenmast is fore-and-aft-rigged. the mill produces, Albert says much of the material has also been shipped out for disposal or use elsewhere in the province. Albert says the community has been looking at a number of options and is working with a company to transform the shavings into other products. There are other uses for the material such as agricultural uses, and mixing it with certain plastics for decking. "On the value-added end of it we're infants, but we are looking at what opportunities there are and how we can get some industries to settle in Chapleau by taking advantage of the resources we have," she says. She says the community is also looking at the possibility of a second co-generation plant for the community. RELATED ARTICLE: Chapleau Population 2,800 Top employer C.P.R. Top five employers C.P.R., Domtar, Chapleau hospital, Weyerhaeuser, Ministry of Natural Resources Area size of community 3036 acres Commercial real estate market conditions Poor Industrial park(s) Unserviced, public roads, light industrial Land values n/p By ANDREW WAREING Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||

Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion