Stumped by forestry policy: Eacom president wants pro-jobs attitude in forestry policy.

• Author: Ross, Ian

The president and CEO of Eacom Timber Corp. said his company will with hold making any major investments in its recently-acquired Northern Ontario sawmills until there is a change in Ontario forest policy.

In an interview with Northern Ontario Business, Rick Doman sharply criticized the provincial government for snuffing out Eacom's expansion plans in the northwest and for making it tougher to harvest wood in the northeast.

Doman is hopeful that a new minority government will result in a "pro-business" policy and a provincial legislature that demonstrates it is committed to the forestry industry.

"We came into Ontario with a lot of capital, and more to spend, and were not going to spend it until we see a change," said the British Columbia-raised lumberman.

Eacom has five Ontario sawmills and two Quebec plants stemming from its $127-million acquisition last year from Domtar. The company also has a 50 per cent stake in an engineered wood manufacturing plant in Sault Ste. Marie that it picked up in the deal.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Doman said global lumber demand is poised to rebound in 2013, and Ontario can be a big part of it.

But Doman said the province is making it tough for companies like his to harvest the annual allowable cut of 26 million cubic metres with forest management policies geared toward conservation. He's particularly concerned about caribou protection measures pro posed for the Abitibi River Forest that will take a quarter of the available timber there out of circulation.

"I feel there's huge potential in Northern Ontario, that's why we're here and want to expand here. The only thing holding us back is the current government. "

The roots of the 47-year-old lumberman are traced to Duncan, B.C. and his late father, Herb Doman, a self-made industry magnet in that province who built Doman Industries into a 6,000-empIoyee company with sales in excess of $1 billion at its peak.

Raised in the family business, the younger Doman moved to Montreal to establish Eacomin2008.

Based on his experiences on the West Coast, and his knowledge of the forest devastation caused by the mountain pine beetle, Doman said Ontario forest management practices need to go back to the drawing board and practice proper science.

Preserving vast swaths of mature forest only leads to disease and more forest fires, he said.

And allowing whole log chipping of soft wood sawlogs for the pulp and paper industry in Ontario is not, in his eyes, positive environmental...