Tembec expects $55 million from Quebec rebate program for big electricity users

MONTREAL – One of Quebec’s largest forestry companies says it expects to qualify for $55 million of electricity rebates due to a four-year capital investment program centred at its Temiscaming manufacturing site.

Montreal-based Tembec Inc. (TSX:TMB) says its $136-million capital program will improve the competitiveness of its Quebec plants, particularly the specialty cellulose plant in the town of Temiscaming near North Bay, Ont.

Tembec says the investment will qualify for rebates introduced in the province’s 2016-17 budget, worth about 40 per cent of the total capital investment.

About 800 of the company’s 1,500 employees in Quebec work at the Temiscaming site, which uses wood fibre from the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region and converts it to specialty cellulose that’s used in a variety of consumer and industrial products.

Tembec’s other products include lumber, paper pulp and paper.