Forestry revitalization
Fibre Pontiac’s current projects and future plans
Sophie Demers
MRC PONTIAC – Fibre Pontiac (FP) has a long history in the region. Established in 2008 by the MRC Pontiac after the Smurfit-Stone pulp mill closed, its mission is to revive the Pontiac’s forestry industry.
Years later, the non-profit organization still pursues this goal. Current projects aim to market or promote unused wood fiber, namely, biomass left over after creating plywood and lumber.
“We’ve worked on several projects, including a big one with Renmatix to produce cellulose, crystalline and lignin. But with the pandemic, it was put aside. It’s still a $100 million project. After that, things calmed down a bit, but we’re getting back on track,” said Pierre Vézina, FP president. “We’re working on various projects with different companies, trying to secure mini contracts to revive the most advanced or optimal use of the Pontiac’s resource,” he added.
Farid Bensebaa, FP director general, elaborated on the company’s current focus; “The biggest project we’re trying to put in place right now is a program with several projects within it. We want to attract young entrepreneurs from all over Quebec, Canada, [and beyond] to settle in Pontiac and transform wood fiber into bioproducts.” FP also has a program to train young entrepreneurs to be project leaders and become invested in Pontiac’s forestry industry. To attract these entrepreneurs, FP is working to create a mobile wood transformation plant in the forest to produce “wood flour”.
“We also want to set up an online digital platform to film and preserve the knowledge of older generations,” said Bensebaa. “So, these are the three angles; attract and train young entrepreneurs, set up a mobile wood transformation unit to reduce carbon footprints and create a digital platform to preserve and share existing knowledge,” he explained.
In order to achieve these goals, a funding request has been submitted to the Canada Economic Development Agency (CED) for $981,000 over 4 years. During the July 19 Council of Mayors meeting, a resolution was passed supporting FP’s request for funding.
