Grand chief calls for 'urgent meeting' and buyout of Tolko paper mill

Northern Manitoba's First Nations want to take ownership of the soon-to-be-shuttered Tolko pulp and paper mill in The Pas.

Sheila North Wilson, grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, said the mill is too important to northern First Nations to let it close. She is calling "for an urgent meeting" involving Premier Brian Pallister, Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox and northern First Nations leaders about a buyout of the mill.

"It is time that First Nations took ownership of the northern forest industry and restored our stewardship of the forests within our ancestral lands and traditional and Treaty territories," North Wilson stated in a news release from MKO, which represents most of the province's northern First Nations.

A similar buyout idea was considered in the 1980s under then-Premier Gary Filmon's Progressive Conservative government. It didn't pan out but it's time for another attempt, North Wilson said.

"MKO proposes that discussions for First Nation ownership of the mill and the allocation of the forest resources be immediately reopened," the release from MKO stated.

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Tolko announced Monday that the mill will close in early December, throwing more than 300 people out of work. Many are First Nations people, the MKO release stated.

"The closure of the mill will also affect many more jobs in the timber harvesting and forest renewal businesses in the MKO region, many of which have First Nation ownership, such as Moose Lake Logging Inc.,"  North Wilson said in the release.

Control over timber resources an issue 

Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand is also raising the issue of control over timber resources, saying Tolko's specific land-use rights give it control over activity in the region.  

He said a new model is needed.

"We should look at more small and medium-sized plants in the future, and there shouldn't be these authoritative powers given to these companies, because they decide whose products they buy and they decide who cuts that wood," Chartrand said.

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Chartrand said the impending closure of the Tolko paper mill in The Pas will strike directly into the heart of his community.

He said there are approximately 100 Métis people who work at the Tolko plant but the ripple effect from the closure goes outside The Pas, reaching deep into surrounding communities.

"It's a shock to the community right now. It's a shock to the workers. But people are also not talking about the workers that are working in the bush, cutting the wood that's sold to Tolko. There is an effect on that side. People that work in the bush, traditionally it's a very high Aboriginal population, particularly for us. It's a high Métis population," Chartrand told CBC News.

By Tolko's own estimates there are approximately 250 indirect contract workers in the region's woodland area. In a 2014 application to Manitoba Hydro for a rate decrease, Tolko estimated its payroll for the mill workers alone to be around $37 million.

Time to think 'out of the box'

Chartrand says perhaps a joint venture could be created between all the parties affected by the closure.

"A co-operative ownership. Maybe there is a way where all the three-hundred-and-something employees could become co-operative owners where they can put [in] a direct investment and become owners of the company … where our Métis government and others can chip in," Chartrand said.

Chartrand said that group could also include local bands such as the Opaskwayak Cree Nation and perhaps get assistance from the provincial and federal governments.

He said Tolko has received large injections of government money but is still planning to close. 

Meeting planned for September

In the meantime Chartrand says the MMF will be meeting its members in The Pas next month looking for solutions.

"We're planning a strategy meeting right now. September 17 we are going to meet with all our Métis workers in all sectors and fields. An open public meeting will take place and we are putting our team together to look at what we can do with what we have," Chartrand said.

Chartrand says he will press the federal government for quick action on employment benefits when the workers from the mill are let go in December.