Features Environment & Sustainability Forestry
Canada invests $15M into Quebec wood pellet and sawmill complex

November 13, 2018 – The government of Canada has invested $15 million to help build the first fully integrated industrial wood pellet and sawmill complex in Canada.

Paul Lefebvre, parliamentary secretary to Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s minister of natural resources, made the announcement earlier today that Granule 777 Inc. will be the recipient of the funding. On behalf of the Navdeep Bains, minister of innovation, science and economic development and the minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED), Lefebvre also announced a repayable contribution of $5 million to enable Granule 777 to acquire strategic and innovative production equipment.

“Innovation in the forest sector will help combat the effects of climate change, create new markets for Canadian forest companies and sustain good jobs for Canadians,” says Lefebvre. “Today’s announcement is another example of our government’s dedication to supporting renewable resource development and the advancement of forest diversification in Canada.”

Upon completion, the new mill will manufacture 210,000 metric tons of wood pellets per year, use 450,000 green metric tons of biomass, reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and create 40 new jobs for mill operations.

The company’s adoption of advanced technology at the mill will deliver economic benefits to rural and Indigenous communities and the surrounding region by improving the mill’s competitiveness, enhancing productive capacity and diversifying its product base.

“We are very excited about the construction of this innovative integrated wood pellet plant, adjacent to our Barrette-Chapais sawmill,” says Navdeep Bains, minister of innovation, science and economic development and minister responsible for CED. “Over the past few years, we have successfully gathered the necessary winning conditions to move ahead with this project and make it a reality. We firmly believe it will be something very positive for the value-added sawmills’ co-products, the local communities and the overall forestry sector in the province.”

The funding is provided through Natural Resources Canada’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program and CED’s Quebec Economic Development Program.

On June 1, 2017, the IFIT program received $55 million over three years as part of the Government of Canada’s $867-million Softwood Lumber Action Plan to support workers and forest-dependent communities that have been affected by U.S. duties on Canadian softwood lumber. This new funding enabled innovative transformative technology adoption for the sector.