FROM northernnews.ca: An American-based multinational company interested in buying Grant Forest Products promises to keep the oriented strand board manufacturer operating.

Georgia-Pacific, owned by Koch Industries, signed an agreement to buy Grant Forest Product operations in Englehart, Earlton and South Carolina earlier this month.

Grant Forest Products sought protection to restructure under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act in June 2009.

But Temiskaming Shores Mayor Judy Pace wants Ontario and Canada to review the purchase to ensure Northern Ontario assets and jobs are protected.

Pace said in a media release Monday the region is already "under siege" with economic problems stemming from foreign takeovers of resource-based companies.

Pace said the province should allow public input into the transfer of timber rights because Grant Forest Products ". . . is on the verge of being stripped of its assets in a bank-driven process which does not take the interests of Northern Ontario into account.

"These are world-class facilities that fit strategically with our current wood products operations and we are pleased with this opportunity to grow our OSB business in Canada and the U.S.," said Mark Luetters, president of Georgia-Pacific Wood Products. We look forward to closing this deal and having these facilities, and the employees who operate them, join the Georgia-Pacific family."

Georgia-Pacific intends to operate the OSB manufacturing facilities that employ more than 300 people in Ontario and at Allendale, S.C. At the Clarendon plant, Georgia-Pacific plans to complete the unfinished construction and begin operations as soon as market conditions allow, which will entail employing more than 100 people in Clarendon County. In addition, Georgia-Pacific plans to make capital investments worth several million dollars to improve facilities and deliver enhanced reliability and efficiencies.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2010, following appropriate U.S. and Canadian regulatory review and court approval.

Headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific employs more than 40,000 people at more than 300 locations in North America, South America and Europe.