Company gets green light from province.

The proponents of a birch plywood mill for the Blind River area will proceed with their plans to build a $105-million facility after getting the green light from the Ministry of Natural Resources to harvest the surplus wood supply from Crown land.

Although the proponent, Algoma Mill Works, has not yet disclosed the location of the plant, the possibility of 300 new jobs is being heralded by Blind River Mayor Bob Gallagher as the biggest news for his economically stagnant community in more than a decade.

"Right now, with the conditions being what they are, (the development of a plant) is going to be a real winner," says Gallagher who estimates unemployment levels in his town of 3,100 to be more than 20 per cent.

Algoma Mill Works was one of 11 companies who made a formal bid in a provincial forestry program last year to secure about 150,000 cubic metres of wood annually. The mm proposal itself had been in limbo for eight years while the ministry sized up how to best use about one million cubic metres of mainly surplus white birch stretching from Wawa to the Quebec border.

Graeme Lowry, Algoma Mill Works president, says this summer will be spent completing the detailed engineered drawings and putting out construction tenders. Most of the fall and winter will be consumed finalizing the financing package. He expects to begin construction in the spring of 2002, with plant commissioning in 2003.

Lowry says he is eyeing a number of properties in the Blind River and Spanish area, particularly those with rail, highway and water access. But the final site selection must be in the region defined by the Elliot Lake and North Shore Corporation for Business Development (ELNOS)- a venture-financing institution which signed on as an equity partner.

Additional financing is expected from the Mississauga First Nations which provided some early seed capital, while the rest will come from private investors and lending institutions.

George Farkouh, Elliot Lake mayor, though supportive of the mill, prefers to take a wait-and-see attitude. Over the last 12 years he has cut the ribbon on many new enterprises promising hundreds of new jobs only to have deals fall flat and the businesses never materialize. He says he would prefer the mill be centrally located in the ELNOS region in order to benefit more towns with economic spinoffs.

"I think the sooner they would announce the location, the sooner the full support will be coming from all the communities," Farkouh says.