Hay River (May 10/04) - After a three-year hiatus, large-scale commercial sawmilling has returned to the NWT.

In mid-April, Patterson Sawmill in Hay River began sawing white spruce cut in the Cameron Hills over the winter. "We're happy to be back in business," says Eugene Patterson, co-owner of the sawmill.

"We're hoping for a rebirth of the lumber industry here."

The business was put on hold for three years as it fought to get access to timber. It eventually won 4,000 cubic metres of timber in each of five years in the Cameron Hills.

However, it had sought 10,000 cubic metres a year, and unsuccessfully appealed the quota granted by RWED.

Patterson says the mill is hoping to generate about $400,000 in revenue this summer.

However, with that revenue the mill will just break even, he says. "What it amounts to is you buy yourself a job."

Patterson himself doesn't work at the mill. His son and two grandsons operate the mill and did the logging.

If it had received the larger quota, the sawmill would have employed 12 workers, plus 20 loggers.

Re-establishing markets

Patterson says the business must now re-establish its markets.

"The people we dealt with before have other suppliers," he says. "We just have to establish new markets."

He has been calling former customers in Canada and the U.S. "They have to need the lumber before they come back to you."

The mill has three orders so far from Yellowknife and Hay River.

Three years ago, 80 per cent of the lumber produced by the sawmill went to the U.S.

While Patterson's was not operating, local small-scale sawmilling continued elsewhere in the NWT -- Fort Smith, Jean Marie River and just outside Nahanni Butte. Each mill only saws a couple of hundred cubic metres a year.

"They're all for local use," says Tom Lakusta, the manager of forest resources with the Forest Management Division of RWED.

Lakusta notes there are also several communities on the Mackenzie River with portable sawmills.

The first records of sawmilling in the NWT are from the 1940s in Fort Smith, he notes. "There's been a long history of sawmilling in the NWT."

Always challenges

However, he says the industry has always faced challenges.

Lakusta explains one main issue is protection of the environment. "Whether the regulations are too stringent or not stringent enough."

The industry also faces more extensive consultation than elsewhere under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act.

Lakusta says there are also significant issues of costs and marketing.

"We are a long way from the big markets."

Plus, he notes the U.S. has imposed trade restrictions on Canadian softwood lumber.

Lakusta says existing land claims don't seem to have a negative effect on sawmilling, while an interim measures agreement for unsettled claims have established rules for resource industries.

The forest manager believes the future of sawmilling in the NWT is up to the sawmillers, noting there has been increased interest over the last couple of years.

"It never stopped, but for a couple of years there was very low production for local wood," Lakusta says.

The largest use of the forests in the NWT is for firewood.