TORONTO

A mayor, First Nations representatives and local business people chartered a plane recently to fly to Toronto in a desperate bid to save their small town from extinction.

It has been 18 months since the Resolute mill in Fort Frances closed.

It was the economic mainstay for the town. In its heyday, the mill provided 800 direct jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs in trucking and forestry, especially for aboriginal communities.

Now the community is facing tough times. Some families have moved away — mostly to Alberta — in search of work.

The group came to Queen’s Park because there’s a glimmer of hope for Fort Frances — and the government may just snuff it out.

An innovative company wants to buy the mill, invest money in the it — and save the town.

Fort Frances Mayor Roy Avis is pinning his hopes on Expera Specialty Solutions, a U.S.-based company that’s not in competition with Resolute and produces a wide range of innovative products such as popcorn bag liners and peel-and-stick badges. They even have a contract with Boeing Aircraft to produce carbon fibre for the new Dreamliner 787 aircraft.

Sounds great — except the Ministry of Natural Resources won’t give Expera a wood allocation from the local forest to feed the mill.

“Expera wants to purchase a kraft mill — and provide 200 direct jobs and 800 indirect jobs.

“They’re also looking at investing $100 million in the facility and they’re a progressive, growing company,” said Avis.

“They’re a very good fit for our community.”

Avis says if an Enhanced Sustainable Forestry Licence (ESFL) had been in place as the government had earlier pledged, the wood allocation would have been returned to the community once the mill closed. While the government owns the forest, Resolute has exclusive management rights over the area.

It all hit the fan in the legislature last week, with Kenora-Rainy River NDP MPP Sarah Campbell angrily accusing Natural Resources Minister Bill Mauro of deliberately diverting trees from Fort Frances east to his riding of Thunder Bay-Atikokan.

“The people in this town are left watching as their livelihood is being trucked away,” she said.

The wood fibre should stay in Fort Frances where it can create thousands of jobs, Campbell insisted.

“Is the reason why you’re refusing to resolve this situation in Fort Frances because the wood is going to your riding to be processed instead of staying in Fort Frances?” she asked Mauro. She believes if the ESFL had been in place, the wood could be saved for Fort Frances.

Mauro dismissed her claim, pointing out that wood from his riding had earlier been sent to Fort Frances.

“As I’ve said repeatedly and will say again, even if the ESFL had been in place, it would not have guaranteed any deal. We continue to work with both parties and with the community,” he said.

Avis figures the town has three weeks. After that, the mill will freeze — and be lost forever.

“After that, Expera is going to walk away from the deal, the mill is going to freeze — and the town will be dead,” he said.

“Our biggest concern at the present time is that we’re operating under an old, sustainable forest licence.”

A spokesman for Resolute said the company has made “significant effort to reposition the Fort Frances mill.”

The company heated it for two winters to protect the asset, at a cost of $12.5 million, said Seth Kursman.

He said Resolute has huge investments in northern Ontario.

“Resolute has committed approximately $200 million in capital investment in Ignace, Atikokan, Iroquois Falls and the turbine at Thunder Bay. Hundreds of jobs are being created directly and indirectly,” he said.

That doesn’t help Fort Frances. With a stroke of the pen, Premier Kathleen Wynne could save the mill — and keep the town alive.

christina.blizzard@sunmedia.ca