Value-added industry key to growth in northwest.

Adding value to forest products is necessary for future growth and diversification of northwestern Ontario. That was the central message delivered by a panel representing the government, education, and technology sectors at the Northwestern Ontario Forest Council's (NOFC) "Value-added in Forest Products: Who Will Lead the Way?" conference in Thunder Bay on Nov. 20.

"Ontario's value-added wood products sector generates more sales, more exports and more jobs than the commodity woods sector does currently," indicated Michael Power, chair of the Ontario Living Legacy Trust. "In fact, the value-added sector employs approximately three times as many as commodity product manufacturers. Unfortunately for the North, most of Ontario's value-added wood products, which are exported to the U.S. market, are made in southern Ontario. This value-added manufacturing could be done up here, closer to wood resources."

According to a recent report by the Living Legacy Trust, a $30-million fund was established by the Province of Ontario to invest in natural management projects in Northern Ontario. The value-added sector already employs approximately 37,000 people in Ontario, while another 1,000 businesses in Ontario are involved in value-added products.

Jamie Lim, the mayor of Timmins, was also present on the panel. She took the opportunity to speak to demonstrate her unyielding support for Ontario's forest industry and to pose a perplexing question to northerners.

"In Ontario, the forest industry employs 88,400 people directly resulting in 177,000 indirect jobs and contributes close to $1 billion to Ontario's companies, second only to the automotive industry in southern Ontario," Lim indicated. "About 50,000 of those jobs are in southern Ontario. Why is the value-added industry in southern Ontario? We have got to bring it back to the North. That is a challenge, but we have got to do it."

"Ontario needs forestry and mining to succeed," Lim added. "Our region, Northern Ontario, needs forestry and mining to remain competitive; innovative and viable. The value-added industry does create more industry and that is what the North needs.