Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I N O. X X I I I O C T O B E R 3 , 2 0 1 6 6 Immigrants key to addressing Maine's workforce woes A new report from the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Maine Development Foundation says that attracting immigrants to the state is necessary to deal with Maine's shrinking workforce, which is projected to decline as employees retire, with too few young work- ers available to replace them. "We hear from employers across the state and throughout the economy about the difficulties they face in find- ing enough workers with the skills and education they require," Dana Connors, president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, said. According to a U.S. Census Bureau survey cited in "Maine's Labor Shortage: New Mainers and Diversity," the population of foreign- born Mainers has grown in recent years, but only makes up 3.5% of the state's population, compared to the 12.3% of New England's population and 13.1% of the U.S. population that is foreign-born. Maine also has the highest median age in New England at 43.5 and is tied with Vermont for the slowest population growth in the region at 0.1%. Maine has its largest cruise ship traffic day CruiseMaineUSA Coalition, which promotes the cruise industry in Maine's ports, said September was the busiest month of the season. Some 111,022 passengers stopped in Maine from 64 cruise ship vis- its. e season peaked on Sept. 22 with 7,622 visitors in one day, with a total of six ships arriving in Portland, Rockland, Bar Harbor and Eastport. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, among various grants, an- nounced that the Office on Violence Against Women awarded $1.18 mil- lion in grant funding to two Maine organizations to implement programs that support victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalk- ing. The Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault in Augusta received $500,000 and the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence in Augusta received $680,000. The National Science Foundation awarded a $299,451 grant to the University of Maine in Orono as part of an initiative to promote the development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics talent in populations that have tradition- ally been underserved or underrep- resented in the STEM fields and a $127,858 grant to Bates College in Lewiston to support eyewitness identi- fication research. The Maine Department of Public Safety will receive $978,727 in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice's Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. The funds will support local govern- ment programs that help prevent, fight and prosecute crime and aim to improve the functioning of the crimi- nal justice system in Maine, Collins and King said. Four Maine museums will receive a total of $382,151 in grant fund- ing from the Institute of Museum and Library Services Museums for America program. Recipients are the Maine Historical Society in Portland that will receive $149,275; Victoria Mansion, Portland, $129,123; Maine State Museum, Augusta, $85,397; and Portland Museum of Art, Portland, $18,356. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded $750,063 to RockStep Solutions in Portland to support a research project, "Novel Use of Emergent Technologies to Improve Efficiency of Animal Model Research" and $214,651 to The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor to support an education project, "Curriculum Development and Training for Systems Genetics." Statewide, 18 community health centers will receive a total of $963,623 in federal funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration to support their op- erations and provide quality health care services. The Alzheimer's Association, Maine Chapter announced that its Walk to End Alzheimer's events in Greater Portland, Fort Kent, York Beach and B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E Maine's forest economy fell $1.3B since 2014 The total economic impact of Maine's forest products industry fell from $9.8 billion in 2014 to $8.5 billion in 2016, according to a new report released by the Maine Forest Products Council. That's not surprising, given the closure of five paper mills in the last two years and the shutdown of two biomass energy plants this spring. Reflecting those closures, total payroll fell from $2.1 billion in 2014 to an estimated $1.8 billion in 2016, with direct jobs declining from 16,551 in 2014 to an estimated 14,563 in 2016. Total state and local taxes paid fell from $318.5 million in 2014 to an esti- mated $278.4 million in 2016, according to the 2016 Maine's Forest Economy report, which was unveiled at the Maine Forest Products Council's annual meet- ing Sept. 19 in Orono. "We've always wanted to know our numbers. It's really important to know whether we're gaining or losing ground in this industry," Patrick Strauch, execu- tive director of the Maine Forest Products Council, told Mainebiz. "What we're showing is that we can respond to good economic times [eg., the $9.8 billion total economic impact in 2014] but we also know we have to respond to the challenges facing this industry as well. So the message we want to convey is: we haven't died. We're still a $8.5 billion industry, which is where we were in 2011, but it's clear the world is changing around us." The report uses an industry standard input-output model that accounts for both direct and indirect economic impacts. Mindy Crandall, an assistant professor of forest management and economics at the University of Maine, computed the 2016 estimates to give the report more of a real-time snapshot of the industry than it would have had due to the lag time in official reporting of some metrics. Strauch said Maine's remaining paper mills are making significant capital investments to remain competitive, in some cases to diversify with new products for which there is strong global demand. "They're not just thinking about the new lines of paper they can get into, they're looking at different products that are on the horizon," he said. "They're identifying the new chemical extractives such as cellulosic sugars that can be pulled out of wood and made into chemicals. Plastics made out of petrochemi- cals don't tend to biodegrade, so there's a growing worldwide interest in finding ways to get a more organic, bio-based plastic." Strauch said presentations at the annual meeting illustrated how the industry is reinventing itself to meet the rapidly evolving global economy. "We have an incredible sustainable resource in this state," he said, referring to Maine's 17.6 million acres of forest, 89% of the state's land, with 8.3 million acres being certified as sustainably managed by independent auditors. "Our chal- lenge is to find our way as we go into the next generation. We're going through a tough time. But it's not a disaster. We still have a critical mass of businesses cranking away. We know what the numbers are, we know our challenges. We need to build that road map that will get us through this transition so that we can grasp the opportunities that are out there." — J a m e s M c C a r t h y F I L E P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y M A I N E F O R E S T P RO D U C T S C O U N C I L Patrick Strauch, left center, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council, leads MFPC members on a tour of the Robbins Lumber Co. woodlot in a 2014 file photo.

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