Prince Albert pulp mill prepares for construction

Demolition work is set to begin at the Prince Albert Pulp Mill, but the company said it was at least two years away from production.

“We have awarded three contracts to perform some work around the mill associated with demolition,” project operations director for the Prince Albert Pulp Restart Project Carlo Dal Monte said.

Paper Excellence has awarded $1.4 million in contracts to three Prince Albert based contractors. Impact Mechanical will remove equipment from inside the mill and on the site. Bill’s Electrical has been selected to upgrade electrical, and Flatlander’s Scaffolding will support the demolition work where needed.

Dal Monte says the majority of the work is inside the building. On the exterior, an oil fuel tank is being removed as the pulp mill will now rely on natural gas.

Paper Excellence submitted a revised environmental impact study to the government at the end of September. The Ministry of Environment has 30 days to review the document.

“[For] actual construction we are still waiting for ministerial approval, however this is demolition work,” said Dal Monte.

Paper Excellence currently employs about 22 people at the Prince Albert mill site and plans to create 200 full time employee positions once the pulp mill is up and running.

MANUFACTURING PLANT PARTNERSHIP

The company has also prepared an area east of the pulp mill for a proposed oriented strand board (OBS) manufacturing plant by One Sky Forest Products.

Paper Excellence signed an agreement with One Sky Forest Products to subdivide their property to provide approximately one-square kilometer of land to One Sky to build an OBS plant. Paper Excellence and One Sky plan to share log storage areas, roads and a rail line.

“The folks at the mill have done a great job, either disposing of it or recycling it,” said Dal Monte.

One Sky has not commenced construction of the OSB plant at the site and could not be reached for comment.

PROVINCE PLANS TO BOOST FORESTRY

The province of Saskatchewan says its in support of both projects.

The Saskatchewan Growth Plan includes doubling forestry product sales to $2.2 billion and exports to $1.2 billion by 2030.

“We’re already at $1.8 billion so we think that we are going to reach that ahead of schedule,” said Minister of Energy and Resources Jim Reiter.

He says the province is working with the industry to ensure the success of other projects, such as a biomass plant project at Meadow Lake and saw mill expansions in Carrot River and Big River.

There are currently seven large forest product manufactures and 210 small forest businesses established in the province, according to the ministry.

The province says half of the its land is forested, covering 34 million hectares. Currently five million hectares are classified as productive forest land for commercial timber harvesting.