Well, I do have Mr. Patterson’s permission to discuss this in public on the floor, because we have exhausted every other possible avenue. Mr. Patterson has come here. He’s met with the Minister of ITI. I have sent numerous correspondence, letters, texts and e-mails to Mr. Miltenberger about this and I have not got satisfaction. This is where we are today out of desperation, because we cannot get a satisfactory solution to this problem.
Last week Mr. Patterson called me and offered to cobble together a $15,000 payment on this outstanding debt if he could just get out there, get this approved and continue to hold this debt on the books until such time as he has a chance to make the money to pay it back. I’m not asking for forgiveness of this debt, just asking for it to be put into abatement until such time as he can get to work and keep his business going.
I understand the Minister’s difficulty in that he doesn’t want to discuss the details of this, but I have been given permission to ask this. I would like to ask the Minister, in view of the value of waste wood that sits in Patterson’s yard, and this proposed pellet mill, and the value, the economic value that could be in that waste wood that sits in Patterson’s yard right now as a result of this new pellet mill coming on stream, has the department looked at some of the prospects, some of the good prospects that could see the economic viability of this business be improved as a result of this? Thank you.