Business

VANCOUVER—Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. said its third-quarter loss shrank compared to last year after production curtailments and thanks to a significant foreign exchange gain.
The Vancouver-based firm reported a third-quarter loss of $37.2 million, or $2.54 per share, compared to a loss of $77.5 million, or $5.29 per share, for the same period last year.
Sales in the quarter ended Sept. 30 were $150.8 million compared to $181.1 million in the 2006 quarter.

MONTREAL—AbitibiBowater Inc. is launching a 30-day review of operations following the combination of Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. and Bowater Inc., completed Oct. 29.
Abitibi-Consolidated separately said today it earned third-quarter net income of $54 million, 12 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $48 million, 11 cents per share.
However, excluding one-time items, the third-quarter loss was $126 million, 28 cents per share, compared with a year-ago loss of $54 million, or 12 cents a share.
Sales were down 15 percent to $999 million from $1.18 billion.

Roll out the red carpet—the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce will honour some of the district’s finest this Saturday night during its 12th-annual business awards at La Place Rendez-Vous.
Chamber manager Dawn Booth said she’s been hard at work planning the evening, to which she once again is looking forward.
“I think it’s a good opportunity not only for the Chamber of Commerce, but people in general, to recognize all the hard work businesses do in the community each and every year,” she remarked.

TBayTel is pleased to be the first single-source provider in Northern Ontario to offer small- and medium-sized business customers managed information technology services.
The delivery model is like nothing currently being offered.
TBayTel’s new Direct IT-Managed IT Services was launched last Thursday in Thunder Bay.
The utilization of Direct IT’s world-class technology and services will assist
businesses in maximizing their IT investment by increasing efficiencies and
protecting their information assets.

Rainy River will be losing one of its biggest businesses in the upcoming weeks as Lowes Furniture moves to Alberton.
The business was a spin-off from Lowes Lumber and Furniture in Sleeman about 12 years ago and has been an anchor on Rainy River’s Main Street ever since.
However, owner and operator Dale Lowes said it has stopped growing—and that’s not good in any business.
“We were not losing money here but [we] need to grow,” he stressed.
Lowes said he feels Fort Frances is the place to do that.

VANCOUVER—Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. says it will temporarily shut down operations at four of its oriented strandboard mills before the end of the year, and two of those mills also will operate on a reduced production schedule indefinitely.
Vancouver-based Ainsworth cited operating losses, log supply shortages, and a decline in orders for the curtailments.
The company said this week it would curtail operations at two Canadian mills: Barwick, Ont. from Dec. 24-Jan. 1 and Grande Prairie, Alta. from Nov. 5-12 and Dec. 17-Jan. 1.

Town council is expected to pass a bylaw to declare a byelection to fill the vacancy at its meeting tonight.
While council decided back on Oct. 3 to fill the vacancy by holding a byelection, this won’t be official until it passes a bylaw.
Once a byelection is declared, the town will set a date for a Nomination Day. Until that date, individuals are welcome to drop by the Civic Centre and pick up a nomination form.
A person may put their name forward to run four council by filing a nomination form with the clerk’s office in person or by an agent up until Nomination Day.

After finishing 41 votes behind Liberal candidate Bill Mauro in Thunder Bay-Atikokan in last week’s provincial election, NDP candidate John Rafferty will get a recount.
The Ontario NDP reported this morning that their request for a judicial recount was approved.
The recount will take place next Friday (Oct. 26). A representative from the Ontario NDP’s main office said it’s not know how long a recount will take.
As previously reported, the official tabulation completed last Friday showed 10,919 votes for Mauro and 10,878 for Rafferty.

The LCBO on Monday launched “Whisky in Focus,” its largest-ever whisky promotion, as sales of the popular spirit are projected to top $520 million by year-end—more than $16 million higher than last year.
“Whisky is re-emerging as the preferred spirits drink for many Ontarians,” said Michael Riley, Business Unit Director, Spirits Category, who is chief whisky buyer for the LCBO.
“In fact, sales of Canadian whisky alone, which were in serious decline just over a decade ago, are now growing at a rate of four to five percent a year.

FORT FRANCES—The Northwest Catholic District School Board was updated on the Managing Information for Student Achievement initiative (MISA) at its regular meeting Tuesday night.
Cindy Glavish, the board’s manager of Information Systems and MISA co-leader, explained this ministry initiative—now in its third and final year of funding—aims to have in place a centralized Student Management System to collect and store all relevant data pertaining to students, such as biographical, achievement, attendance, and assessment information.