Manitoba Forest Companies & Tenure
Manitoba Forest Companies Tembec has a Canadian operations website, but is also has a website specific to its Manitoba operations that was publicly launched November 28, 2006.Tembec's Manitoba site provides information to the public on Tembec's activities in FML 01, including Forest Management Plans, Public Meetings, Forest Monitoring and Research Reports, our Environmental Management Systems, and Forest Certification. Tembec Industries Inc acquired the operations, mill, and FMLA for Pine Falls Paper Company in stages starting in 1998. Its forest management legal agreement with Manitoba expires at the end of 2008. Tembec Industries Inc. currently holds FML 01 (License No. 1557 ER) in addition to harvesting rights in IWSA 1 & IWSA 2. The company is also a quota holder in other forest regions, and acquires fibre from five natural regions in the province. Tembec has submitted annual Operating and Renewal Plan since its long-term forest management plan expired in 1994. The company has been granted one-year license extensions to its license under the Environment Act each year. Tembec committed to delay submission of a long-term sustainable forest management plan until the completion of Manitoba Conservation's wide-area land use planning initiative for the East Side of Lake Winnipeg. Tembec also delayed submission of its Interim Forest Stewardship Plan due to the current softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the United States. In November 2006, Tembec released the 2006-2008 Interim Forest Stewardship Plan, presenting as a guidance document to assist in providing Tembec with input on the development of the long term plan - the 2009-2028 Forest Stewardship Plan (FSP) - which will be submitted to Manitoba Conservation for review, approval and licensing in 2008. See Public Registry File No. 4572.00 for details. Tembec has achieved ISO 14001 EMS and FSC certification status for the Manitoba woodlands operation. The Interim 2006-2008 Plan was used by Smartwood in making the FSC Certification decision for FML 01 while the 2009-2028 FSP was being developed. Manitoba Conservation has started the sequence of steps to arrive at a new long term forest management plan and operating plan, new environmental license for Tembec in FML 1. The public review of Environmental Impact Statement Guidelines closed in March 2008. Manitoba Wildlands provided comments. View Manitoba Conservation's information on Tembec  Download Manitoba Wildlands March 2008 Comments  (PDF)Tembec Sells Pine Falls Plant The sale includes industrial buildings, equipment, waterfront lands and facilities, residential communities, the new TMP mill, a waste water treatment plant, a landfill, and approximately 1,000 acres of vacant land. PFDC will seek alternative uses for the assets and site, by moving forward with land reclamation and site reconfiguration, while exploring opportunities for resale. The complex brownfield redevelopment process could take from 2-5 years to complete. Financial details of the sale were not disclosed but Tembec said the site was sold for "nominal net proceeds" as the mill had already been written off when it was permanently closed. On the Labour Day weekend in 2009, Tembec locked out its workers after they rejected the company's offer of cuts to their wages, pensions, and benefits. A year later, in 2010, the mill officially closed its doors and as many as 300 workers were out of a job. View Pine Falls Development Corporation websiteView October 7, 2011 Tembec release View October 7, 2011 Tembec press release View Manitoba Wildlands Forest companies & Tembec page View October 7, 2011 Canadian Press article View October 7, 2011 Forest Talk article Source:
Pine Falls Development Corporation, Tembec
Manitoba Corporate Welfare for Tembec In 2001 Tembec upgraded it's Pine Falls operations, with a resulting decrease in coal use and correspondingly emissions. However it was not until 2008 that the $3 million was given to Tembec, so the funding provided no net reductions in GHG emissions. As Bellringer explains, contrary to government spin, this funding was not meant to reduce emissions, "...[the] case for this funding was built primarily on economic reasons... in response to concerns over the pending closure of the [Pine Falls, MB] plant." With the mill closed and no net reductions in emissions, Manitobans gained little from this funding. Nor was this the only funding provided to Tembec before the mill closed down in September 2009. When the Manitoba Government announced an end to logging in provincial parks in December 2008 it also announced: "[a] total of just over $3 million in one-time financial compensation will be paid to Tembec and Tolko to reflect the cost of moving operations out of parks." None of the parklands where logging stopped have restoration plans or new regulations to protect these zones. It remains unclear whether Tembec was obligated to pay any of this government funding back upon closure. Even though the Tembec plant was closed Manitoba Conservation moved forward with review of a new twenty-year (2009-2028) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Forest Stewardship Plan (FSP) in January 2010. Manitoba Wildlands submitted comments on the proposed EIS and FSP.
Source: Office of the Auditor General of Manitoba
Tembec Licence Review Comments Tembec announced that it wished to sell the Pine Falls Mill in December 2009. Media coverage as of mid January 2010 indicates that at least 3 parties are interested in purchasing the mill. In November 2009 Manitoba Conservation allowed Tembec's twenty-year forest management plan, Environment Act proposal for environmental licensing, and the EIS to match the twenty-year plan to be filed. Public review of the plan, and EIS was ongoing through the above events.
Tembec Requests Twenty Year Licence Former customers for the newsprint from this mill included newspapers in the US and Canada. An earlier plan to combine a new sawmill with the TMP mill was dropped. Despite the situation described above in late 2009 Manitoba Conservation requested a twenty year forest stewardship plan, with a proposal under Manitoba''s Environment Act, and environmental impact assessment. The filings went to public review, which closed in January 2010. The licence for the mill, and the woodlands operation are separate licences, but both are held (together with a legal agreement with the Manitoba government) by the same company. All fiber under a woodlands environmental licence goes through the mill. Tembec had been securing additional fiber for the mill across the province. Manitoba Wildlands responded to the public review under the Environment Act. "We found there was a lack of context, and a serious lack of knowledge of public policy as these apply to the public forests in the Forest Management Area. The lack of a business plan, or explanation whether there is any market or an operating mill for the fiber is a glaring deficiency at this time. Our recommendation to the minister of Conservation is to avoid licencing until there are answers to these deficiencies, an improved plan, and EIA," commented Gaile Whelan Enns, director of Manitoba Wildlands. View Tembec Manitoba Operations |
The Pine Falls pulp and paper mill complex, shut down in 2009, was sold to Pine Falls Development Corporation (PFDC) October 7, 2011. PFDC is subsidiary of NRI Global Inc., a private investment firm that specializes in dismantling and reselling industrial sites.
In her 2010 Report to the Legislative Assembly - Performance Audits Auditor General of Manitoba, Carol Bellringer criticizes Manitoba's allocation of $3 million in federaleco-trust funding to Tembec. The eco-trust funding was provided to provincial governments by the Canadian federal government to fund initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Manitoba received $53.8 million in funding through the eco-trust program intended to support projects that reduce GHG emissions.
2002-2014