Timmins company receives funding to research how to help trees grow faster, help climate change fight

Micro-Tek in Timmins has received $3.7 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada, an independent federal foundation that helps Canadian companies develop clean technology solutions to address environmental challenges.

Mark Kean, the company's president, said Mikro-Tek is a carbon project developer and supplier of carbon offset credits generated through the application of technology the company formulated from using mycorrhizae fungi, found in the forest.

“So this management technique, in our case, the inoculation of the trees makes the trees grow faster and then that faster-growing tree can be registered as a carbon offset credit," Kean said.

"We’re the first using the mycorrhizae inoculants in Canada to do it.”

Kean will be collaborating with Wahkohtowin Development over the next five years to research herbicide alternatives in forestry management.

“Well it kind of reverses the conversation from the notion 'I need to feed a sawmill,' to 'How do we develop holistic, natural environmental planning and management of our use and occupancy in this space?'" said David Flood, general manager of Wahkohtowin Development.

"That’s really a living philosophy in our communities."

Government officials said commercializing clean technology innovations through partnerships like this one is an important step in Canada's journey to a net-zero emissions economy.