Ontario’s first cross-laminated timber plant will source lumber from White River
Northern Ontario wood will supply the province’s first cross-laminated timber (CLT) plant located in southwestern Ontario.
Patrick Chouinard, a co-founder of Element5, which is setting up a $32-million facility in St. Thomas, mentioned that the fiber for their operation will come from the White River region.
He stated that initially, they considered placing the CLT plant in Northern Ontario. However, after evaluating the numbers, Chouinard said it made more sense economically for the plant to be near their customers.
“Because of the cost of transportation, it was decided that the plant really had to be in southern Ontario where the majority of our opportunities are.”
The Ontario government announced on July 23 that it’s investing almost $5 million into the company’s automated plant and its 60 manufacturing jobs. This adds to a $2-million grant awarded last February by CRIBE (Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-economy), a forestry research group based in Thunder Bay.
Element5 is a design, engineering and fabrication company located in Toronto and Montreal that specializes in mass timber buildings.
Their primary product, CLT, is a wood panel created by gluing together sawn lumber. It’s used for ceilings, walls and roof structures.
The company aims to lead North America’s movement towards building high-rise wooden structures.
Their target markets include Eastern Canada and the U. S., providing various innovative and value-added building products that are quickly becoming popular as building codes allow for taller structures.
The St. Thomas site is about an hour-and-a-half drive from the Windsor-Detroit border and roughly two hours from Buffalo’s bridge.
Chouinard’s firm also runs a CLT plant in Ripon, Quebec that is undergoing expansion with new facilities aimed at producing 10,000 cubic meters of CLT and Glulam (glue laminated timber).
<p“ What we sell are pre-fabricated buildings,” said Chouinard. “At the moment we’re doing everything from tiny homes through to Hines T3 buildings.”
The St. Thomas facility will primarily use 2-by-6 SPF lumber sourced mainly from mills located near Lake Superior’s north shore.
Element5 is part of Frank Dottori’s business interests who founded Tembec.
Dottori bought a 50 percent share in Element5 last year through his company WRC Timber.
The other owners include Chouinard along with his business partners Fred Dinizo and Carl Galli.
Dottori also chairs WRC Timber, which operates sawmills in White River and Hornepayne. He stepped down as president of WRC last January so he could focus on establishing Element5’s CLT plant in Ontario.
A significant drop in lumber prices during 2018 hit his mills hard due to U. S. softwood lumber tariffs; Dottori noted last winter that CLT was precisely what he needed as a solution downstream.
Dottori predicted this site would likely become “the biggest industrial fabricator of CLT in North America.”
No construction has started yet at St. Thomas but Chouinard indicated they plan to be operational by December 2020.
The end products will include CLT panels; Glulam for s and beams; plus nailed laminated timber (NLT) used for floors and roofs.
The annual production capacity at St. Thomas will reach 45,000 cubic meters; however, Chouinard mentioned scalability is definitely an option. His company has purchased 20 acres at the northern part of town with plans to acquire another 20 if needed.
“Assuming things go well, we’ll be expanding into the lot next door.”
A rail spur connects directly to their property along with Highway 401 nearby giving them options for shipping products by both truck and rail.
Chouinard explained besides having easy access across central and eastern U. S., another advantage lies within currency exchange rates too- even with new CLT plants being built stateside，their American clients would still benefit from around a 30 percent discount.
“We don’t anticipate that changing for foreseeable future.”
In high-rise wooden construction fields，British Columbia sets benchmarks with Brock Commons-an impressive hybrid structure combining wood alongside concrete currently reaching18 stories tall. Amendments expected soon through national building codes may permit constructions hitting12-story heights next year.
“The higher we can go，the greater opportunity exists when it comes time selling mass timber，” shared Chouinard.
“Presently under current regulations，Ontario Building Code allows us constructing up six floors，但随着数目提升，潜力机会将大幅增加.这无疑是个好消息.”
For future reference regarding anticipated usage forecasts over three至五年里，“需求将显著超越供应，这一点我非常确定，”说到预期销售额时提到的仍然是极具信心的语气.“我们预期在未来几年达到每年3500万美元销售额，前提是工厂正常运转.”
Chouinard称公司的新闻是一种“三赢”的局面，对省份、林业行业以及环境都有益处.
“我们为了确保使用安大略木材付出了相当大的努力与投资，而这也为北方林业带来了良机，它使得加拿大在这个新兴创新行业中发挥了领导作用；建造速度更快成本更低，同时还创造出更健康环境供建筑居住者使用，这对环境来说简直太棒了.所以这方面没有任何负面因素.”
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