ReadyQuip partners with first nations:holding out hope for provincial involvement.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: News

The province's new focus on enhancing business access to wood and biomass is keeping one Timmins heavy equipment sales and service firm hopeful it may provide a financial shot in the arm to the industry.

Officials with ReadyQuip say that although business has been good through construction, mining and hydroelectric work occurring in the northeast, the revival of some forestry-related work could benefit suppliers.

"Unfortunately, the industry hasn't been there to support it in the last several years, so the volume (of forestry equipment sales) has diminished quite substantially," says Mike Larose, sales and marketing manager of ReadyQuip, and son of president Guy Larose.

"But we're confident it will come back."

Founded in 1986, ReadyQuip currently employs 15 people year-round at its Timmins location, where it sells a wide variety of equipment, including excavators, loaders, crushers, generators and customized equipment for mining and exploration firms. It also features a parts and service facility, complete with service trucks, crane and waste disposal system.

Although forestry once made up 70 per cent of its business, the company has had to diversify over the years to avoid falling to the same fate as the industry it served. Forestry now makes up.no more than 20 per cent of its business, with the remaining 80 per cent consisting mainly of construction and mining.

With the Ontario government looking at opening new wood allocation and biomass opportunities to businesses, Larose says he's optimistic about what it could mean for the company's forestry line of products. Available largely through Finland-based Ponsse, ReadyQuip already has a number of units on hand and available, from chippers to forwarders armed with claws to collect slash piles or brush.

Still, the length of the government process is taking "longer than any of us would have liked," and the financial markets are not cooperating. Financing agencies have put a "black mark" against any forestry-related projects, says Larose, and simply won't consider approving any loan or purchase.

As such, it's up to the government to relieve the pressure by encouraging financial institutions to loosen the purse strings for this kind of work.

"This biomass can take off as much as it wants, but the equipment is...