Andrea Markey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 12/05) - The demand for firewood in Yellowknife has some tree-rich communities thinking about possible business opportunities.

During a forest industry workshop in Fort Providence last week, talk of prices up to $300 per cord for firewood had communities as far away as Jean Marie River thinking about the economics of transporting truckloads of the fuel to the capital.

Jean Marie acquired a new $100,000 sawmill in June and is already looking at expanding its market and products, said Stanley Sanguez, the Deh Cho representative on the First Nations Forestry Program and former chief of Jean Marie River.

A woodsplitter is one option, he said.

The mill sold 30 cords of firewood to the Assembly of First Nations for its conference in Yellowknife this past July, to be used at the campground and ceremonial fires.

Two freight trucks hauled the load approximately 500 km.

The wood is a byproduct of the sawmill operations, and there's plenty of it stockpiled in Jean Marie's yard, said Sanguez.

"Transportation is the only obstacle for us right now," he said.

The firewood business is brisk everywhere, said Janet Janssen, who demonstrated Apache woodsplitters at the conference.

"More and more people are burning wood with the increased cost of heating fuel," she said.

Janssen also sells firewood in Leduc, Alberta. The going rate there is $200 per cord, split and delivered, she said.

A splitting machine such as hers costs approximately $13,000 including attachments.

At a cutting capacity of two cords per hour, wood suppliers make back that cost in less than a year, she said.