It was a gloomy, cold morning threatening rain, but people at the groundbreaking ceremony for Tolko’s new Slave Lake mill last Monday were praising the weather. “I had visions of school buses up to their axles in mud,” said Tolko CEO Al Thorlakson.
In fact the road and the site were in good shape, thanks to some last-minute gravelling, and the ceremony went without a hitch. About 50 people heard speeches from Thorlakson and Sustainable Resource Development Minister David Coutts, watched a traditional hoop dance, and applauded a ceremonial tree planting by company, provincial and local officials.
Thorlakson outlined the history of the project, going back 10 years to the company’s original idea of adding to its High Prairie oriented strandboard mill.
“We wanted to build an engineered wood products mill in High Prairie,” Thorlakson said. “We lost that bid, but we kept the vision alive and it led to this. This plant will move us to new markets, strengthen our product mix.”
What sort of new products? Company Vice President in charge of OSB operations, Rick Huff, told The Leader that they include such items as ‘rim board’, ‘web stock’ and ‘OSB Lumber.’ These are all made from the same stuff as a traditional sheet of OSB, but are tailor made to meet requirements for special components for building construction.
Thorlakson confirmed the company’s intention to keep the current Tolko Slave Lake mill open.
The current mill will produce something other than what it does now.
“Our goal is to re-tool that mill,” Thorlakson said. “There are a variety of good alternatives, and we want to pick the best one.”
The decision awaits a wood products study that Thorlakson said is nearing completion.
Tolko expects construction on the new mill to begin next spring and to last about 18 months. Nearly a million man-hours will go into construction. Once running, the mill will employ about 125 people, with a similar number of contract people supplying the wood.
At the moment, piles of woody debris in the shape of old-time haystacks dot the site, some with smoke rising. Project Engineer Erik Munck says the clay base on the site looks good for construction, meaning that there probably won’t be the need to bring much fill in. Drainage is good, he says.
The site is located a couple of kilometres northeast of the Slave Lake Pulp mill, about 19 kilometres east of Slave Lake.

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