In our province we seem to…

In our province we seem to be surrounded by sawmill operations that are no longer operational due to the fact of a lack of timber access and log purchasing opportunities.
The province has tried several times in the last few decades to implement sawmill operations at large production capacities that were substantially backed by government subsidies and they have all failed due to flawed business plans and poor research as to the availability of timbers in the local forests.
These vaste sawmill operation projects have always, in the past, been an expensive waste of government funding and an overuse of certified forest products.

As the years go by, the certified forests are getting thinner and thinner with high quality softwood products and the current northern ontario softwood mills are having to expand their log procurement areas to reach their sawmills volume capacity.
The Nipissing, Temiskaming, Parry Sound, Sudbury and other Forest Managements have in the past reported pine surpluses which did not become reality. Now after 2020 we are seeing extreme harvesting reductions on each shareholders which show a trend of a lower available volume of softwood in the region.
The declared surpluses of wood on Crown Land are often not reliable estimates or economic to harvest or process as history shows.

The enormous cost estimate for the Bonfield mill complex seems to be totally out of proportion to the production levels of comparable established sawmill complexes in the region. The business plan seems to be constantly updating, an example is the start up cost going from $145million to $300million in Aug 2018, and seems to follow the same trends as previous large scale sawmill operations that have failed in the area.

The ownership team for the Bonfield proposal doesn't seem to have any prior experience or knowledge of the forest industry. Simply finding and keeping the necessary skilled labour and logging contractors is already a serious problem for established sawmills and logging operations in the region.

We hope the Bonfield proposal is not driven by overriding political influences or favors. If it is purely assessed on verifiable facts only than we fail to see how it could succeed and be endorsed by the province, especially if it directly affects the sustainability of established sawmill in the region.

We hope the province will consider the large restriction this will put on current mills in the region before considering approving this project.