Far North Biomass, owned by partners Bryan Tardiff and Louie Ricci, were given notice recently that they were unsuccessful in the Provincial Wood Supply competition.  The application had been submitted in hopes of supporting a District Energy System (DES) in partnership with Lambion Energy Solutions of Germany.

Although the application was not approved, that didn’t keep the local businessmen down for long.  Far North Biomass, with the help of the Dryden Development Corporation (DDC) has requested the City of Dryden to work with them in achieving their goals and a favourable outcome to the city and its residents.

The DDC is requesting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from the City in order to submit a funding application from the DDC to the Northern Communities Investment Readiness (NCIR) program to conduct the feasibility study required to move the project forward.  The NCIR application could allow the DDC to leverage up to 75 per cent of the amount of funding from the NCIR program to complete the analysis.  The City agreed to negotiate the MoU at the open council meeting on March 21.

Co-owner Bryan Tardiff said the original proposal was based on the opportunities available for fibre supply outside of the wood supply competition, as there were no guarantees of success with the province.

DDC recommends the next steps to the city following a negotiated MoU, is to commission a feasibility study of the new catchment area, and upon completion of the study, making application to funding programs that support green infrastructure requirements.

By Ally Dunham