Bowater/Resolute a few years ago. Those lands were previously working forests, and the Crown intends to operate the land in the same way. But instead of handing the operation of the land to a single company, the province will work with a group of forest industry stakeholders in the region, ones that rely on those lands for some or all of its fibre, to manage the cut to ensure that all industries get the fibre they need. A similar model would be a welcome sight for Millington and her team, who are looking for a way to establish a stron-ger supply chain amongst the stakehold-ers in the eastern part of the province. That could be easier said than done, as more industries compete for less fibre than their western counterparts. FIBRE NOT THE ONLY ISSUE Getting industry stakeholders to establish a stronger supply chain that feeds fibre to all wood products companies is only part of the issue. As the industry has begun to regain its confidence, banks and private lend-ing institutions have not bought into the upswing, making it very difficult for con-tractors to purchase new equipment and expand their operations. That’s why part of the solution in Nova Scotia needs to fall on the government’s shoulders, providing low-cost and no-cost loan opportunities to help bring stability back to the market by improving consumer confidence. There is also a nervous excitement surrounding the number of young skilled workers that are finding their way back home to Nova Scotia. Many forest prod-ucts industries in Nova Scotia are seeing an increase in resumes being filed from workers that had once gone to Alberta to work in the oilpatch, but have returned as that industry takes a hit. The returning workers are good to see, but the flight risk remains strong and it only solves part of the issue. The challenge still facing the forest products industry is the need to bring workers back to ultimately help strengthen the province’s harvesting capacity. “Human resources is a big issue here in Nova Scotia,” says Jeff Bishop, execu-tive director for the Forest Products As-sociation of Nova Scotia. “For the next five years, the issue will continue to be contractor capacity. Because of the down-turn and subsequent closures, we saw a significant decrease in our contractor and harvesting capacity.” There are reasons for optimism for the long-term future of the Scotia Atlantic pel-let plant. Some harvesting contractors still manage to find a way to make new invest-ments even without the widespread sup-port of financial institutions. Millington noted that three separate contractors in the last six months have purchased walk-ing floor trucks. As Scotia Atlantic has a truck dumper that is not yet onsite, the walking floor trucks are vital for transport-ing chips and sawdust to the mill. Scotia Atlantic also did its part this past winter to help combat the shortage of wood pellets for domestic consump-tion. With few pellet mills in Atlantic Canada and a substantial shortage of domestic pellet supply for the region, Scotia Atlantic provided some of its in-dustrial pellet supply for home use. Mil-lington suggests that is something that could be made available annually to help out if such a need ever emerged again in the region. There has been an uptick in conver-sations between industry stakeholders in the early part of 2015, leaving the im-pression that there is a renewed sense of cooperation throughout the industry. The Forest Products Association of Nova Sco-tia continues to educate the public on the nuances of the industry, including a focus on providing an understanding of mea-sures already in place to ensure that fibre ends up at the right end user. As Viridis Energy works to right size the Scotia Atlantic operation based on the current right-price fibre availability, Millington believes that full capacity at the Musquodoboit Valley facility may still be within its reach as harvesting ca-pacity and consumer confidence grow in Nova Scotia. • To learn more about pellet plants in Canada, visit: www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca 14 Canadian BIOMASS MAY/JUNE 2015
Canadian Biomass May-June 2015: Page 14
