With a mandate and federal funding to promote sustainable forestry, the Kemptville-based Eastern Ontario Model Forest group, which likes to move its annual meetings around the region, chose the conference room at the Port of Prescott for its 2008 outing May 3.
It’s the latest indicator that things are bustling along the St. Lawrence Seaway in the Johnstown area, things largely of an agriculture and forestry nature.
Moribund until it was taken over by the Township of Edwardsburgh-Cardinal several years ago, the profitable port and its elevator form the highly visible centrepiece of economic activity along this stretch of the Seaway which is only going to increase in coming years.
The elevator is usually jammed with stored corn, soybeans and other grains, so much so that management will be adding several silos worth of expanded storage space. Multi-millions in repairs to the main wharf are needed and the municipality is now shopping around for financial help in getting that job done.
Across the way, GreenField Ethanol is constructing a $185-million corn-fuelled plant on township industrial land which is expected to be completed by the end of this year, creating more jobs and economic spinoffs including corn storage rental by GreenField in the elevator.
The proposed latest addition to this burgeoning beehive is a Wood Centre and Eco-Industrial Park promoted by the EOMF with several partners. If it gets green-lighted, the development would become a world-scale, multi-corporate, value-added wood products processing, marketing and exporting complex... generating more economic action and no doubt drawing other related businesses to Johnstown.
With all of these positive projects and plans in the works, EOMF General Manager Brian Barkley says it was only fitting to hold the annual meeting at the port.
"The stretch of St. Lawrence from Johnstown to Prescott is poised once again to be a significant player in shaping the future of this region."
And of putting cash in the pockets of folks who make their living off the land!