Latest wood allocations support mills, pellets

May 11, 2011 – Three forest product
companies have accepted wood supply offers from the province of Ontario,
bringing the total to 24 accepted offers for a combined total of 2,234,700 cubic
metres/year of wood.

Whitesand First Nation, located north of
Thunder Bay near Armstrong, has accepted an offer of 149,000 cubic metres/year
of merchantable and unmerchantable white birch, poplar, spruce, pine and fir to
build a new forest products facility, creating up to 42 new jobs and helping
the local economy. It will use the wood to build a sawmill, a 3-MW
co-generation facility, and a wood pellet plant. The facility is expected to be
completed in March 2013.

"[This] wood supply announcement marks
the beginning of a new forest economy for Whitesand First Nation and Ontario,
which will see our community produce green energy from the forest, removing our
dependency on costly and dirty diesel generation. Whitesand will own and
operate these facilities that will maximize community and regional benefits
from our local forest," says Chief Allan Gustafson of Whitesand First
Nation.

Domtar Inc. has accepted an offer of
626,000 cubic metres/year of merchantable and unmerchantable wood fibre. It
will use the wood for full-time softwood pulp production in Dryden and to
generate electricity, which will protect 331 existing jobs.

Wagner Ontario Forest Management Limited
has accepted an offer of 133,500 cubic metres/year of merchantable and
unmerchantable wood, which it will use to feed a wood pellet plant to be built
in Ignace. The plant is expected to be operating by October 2013 and to create
20 new jobs.

"Wagner Ontario and our partner Lac
Des Mille Lacs First Nation are grateful to the Ontario government for a wood
supply commitment to build a wood pellet mill in Ignace," says Rob
Edmonds, general manager of Wagner Ontario.