Government of Canada Grants $639,578 in Funding to Cooperative forestiere de Girardville

GIRARDVILLE, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - March 18, 2011) - The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of State for Canada Economic Development, today announced the awarding of $639,578 in repayable funding to the Coopérative forestière de Girardville. Granted through the Temporary Initiative for the Strengthening of Quebec's Forest Economies (TISQFE), this financial assistance will enable the organization to modernize its facilities, accelerate its new product development and expand its markets.

"The Coopérative forestière de Girardville is putting everything it has into increasing its production capabilities and improving its productivity. This financial assistance from Canada Economic Development will surely help it succeed in this endeavour," explained Minister of State Lebel. "The Canadian economy remains fragile. This funding is yet another example of the Government of Canada's determination to foster the growth of the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean economy."

Located in the Regional County Municipality (RCM) of Maria-Chapdelaine, the Coopérative forestière de Girardville intends to use this funding to purchase equipment, modernize its non-timber forest products reclamation complex and expand its range of products derived from vegetation from the boreal forest. The organization's aim is to handle the management of its entire product value chain, from discovery to commercialization.

According to the Coopérative forestière de Girardville, this project is expected to result in the creation of more than 10 jobs, five of them full-time positions, and the maintenance of nine others by 2013, all in a region where development stakeholders have been stepping up efforts to diversify an economy struggling under the effects of the forest crisis. 

About the TISQFE

Brought into force last June, the TISQFE was established to help communities affected by the forestry crisis diversify their economies in order to secure their development and create and maintain employment. The measure's aim is also to support the viability and sustainable growth of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in these communities.

This measure is one of many put in place by the Government of Canada in recent months to counteract the effects of the forest crisis. Others include, for example, the Community Adjustment Fund, with its $1 billion budget over two years to mitigate the impacts of the crisis, the Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program, toward which $1 billion has been granted to help enterprises carry out environmentally-friendly projects, and the investment of $230 million in collaboration with the Government of Quebec for silvicultural work and the restoration of bridges and culverts on multi-use forest roads. Workers have also benefited from their fair share of support, with the Government of Canada introducing some of the most generous measures in history to help them through the economic crisis.

Canada Economic Development is online at www.dec-ced.gc.ca. Subscribe to the Agency's press releases at http://www.dec-ced.gc.ca/eng/media-room/mailing-list/list.html to keep up with the latest news.