FREDERICTON (GNB) – The following statement was issued today by Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup:
A week ago I was informed by Miramichi Lumber Products Inc. (MLPI) that the company intended to temporarily cease its sawmilling operation in Miramichi due to what was said to be a shortage of Crown saw material. Since then, there has been much public discussion over what triggered this decision.
Here are some relevant facts:
● MLPI has a Crown allocation of 126,488 cubic metres of saw material. Saw material is softwood of suitable diameter that it can be used for the production of various lumber products. This is a permanent allocation, meaning the company can harvest this wood annually provided the mill is operating.
● Since the start of the current fiscal year, MLPI has harvested and had delivered to its mill 5,228 cubic metres of its Crown allocation. This means it still has access to more than 120,000 cubic metres of standing wood that it could harvest or have harvested to use at its mill or for trade with other companies.
● Only the Minister of Natural Resources can issue a Crown timber allocation.
I would also like to clarify some comments that have caused a great deal of confusion over the past week.
First, I want to be clear that Crown Timber Licensees have no role in determining who gets an allocation or how much wood they get.
As background, there are six Crown Timber Licences in the province and each has a licensee who is responsible for carrying out management duties on that licence on behalf of the Minister of Natural Resources.
Each licensee has an allocation to harvest Crown wood, as do the other companies that have allocations on the licence. These companies are known as sub-licensees.
In the case of MLPI, I am confident that the licensee on Crown Timber Licence 3 has carried out its responsibilities as mandated by the province. These include ensuring MLPI has the blocks necessary to harvest its entire Crown wood allocation this year.
I am also confident the licensee and other sub-licensees on Crown Timber Licence 3 have conducted themselves in a professional, business-like manner in their dealings with MLPI.
Several of these companies have agreed to trades with MLPI whereby they agreed to supply MLPI with large diameter wood from their allocations in exchange for smaller diameter wood harvested by MLPI. Mutually beneficial trades are a long-standing practice in the New Brunswick forest industry and speak to the inter-connectivity of our industry.
New Brunswick mills work with and trade with one another for their continued operation.
This is because a tree is made up of many products. The bottom portion is the largest and may be suitable for producing larger pieces of lumber such as planks and decking. The middle portion of the tree is usually able to generate studwood (2x4's for example) while the top can be used for pulp and branches turned into biomass.
As a result, a company will trade portions of the tree to another company so that both can get the wood they need to operate. This is the way New Brunswick's forest industry has always succeeded – by working together.
On average in our province, MLPI's 126,488 cubic metre allocation would translate into roughly 75,600 cubic metres of large diameter logs and 50,400 cubic metres of studwood. The 126,488 cubic metres of saw material at the company's disposal is more than double the allocation MLPI had back in 2007 when it was known as Newcastle Lumber.
There is no question that this company has been through trying times in recent years, including a number of closures.
The provincial government has been very supportive of MLPI over the years and has worked with the company to help it reopen on several occasions.
As Minister of Natural Resources, I want to assure the people who work at this mill and the people of the Miramichi that I will continue to work with MLPI to try to find short-term and long-term solutions that can support the continuation of the company's operations without negatively impacting other mills in the province.
What I would most like to see today is the company harvesting the entire remaining 120,000 cubic metres of its Crown allocation and using this wood to keep its mill operating and its workers on the job.