NIAGARA FALLS — A state-subsidized project in the city of Niagara Falls is continuing to draw the ire of local labor leaders.

About 250 members from the Niagara County building trades have organized a demonstration for Saturday to call attention to what they describe as a lack of commitment to local labor on the part of Norampac, a Canadian firm that is receiving $142 million in subsidies for a new $430 million linerboard manufacturing plant currently under construction off Packard Road.

Thomas Pryce, business agent for the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Local Union No. 9 , said, despite weeks of negotiating, Norampac is continuing to pass over members of local trade unions by offering available jobs to out-of-towners.

“It’s the difference between making a living this year and not,” Pryce said of the Norampac project. “It’s the biggest job in town.”

Labor leaders have for months been lobbying local and state officials for help in compelling Norampac to hire more local trades workers. Pryce said Norampac has done some local hiring, but not enough to justify the hefty incentives it is receiving from the state. Pryce said area labor leaders have voiced their concerns to officials from Norampac as well as local elected leaders to no avail. Saturday’s demonstration — to be held at 9 a.m. at 412 39th St., near the Norampac site — is intended to draw increased attention to the situation.

“We’ve tried talking,” Pryce said. “We don’t seem to be making any headway with that.”

Norampac is a division of Cascades, Inc., a Canadian company that has been producing packaging and tissue products since 1964. The company’s Norampac division oversees operations at 37 facilities in the United States and Canada, including Niagara Falls. The new plant is being built as part of a partnership by Norampac, Jamestown Container and the Montreal-based bank, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec.

The partners formed a separate company, Greenpac, LLC, for the purpose of constructing the new facility which will manufacture lightweight linerboard made from 100 percent recycled fibers. Once completed, the plant will be home to the largest containerboard production machine of its kind in North America. Full production is slated to begin in 2013.

State economic development officials agreed last year to provide Greenpac with a multi-million dollar incentive package, including $60 million in brownfield tax credits, 10 megawatts of hydropower from the New York Power Authority, $5 million in Empire Zone tax credits, $3.5 million in state-funded energy efficiency assistance and $500,000 in the form of a utility infrastructure grant from National Grid. Greenpac representatives joined local elected officials for a groundbreaking ceremony at the site in September.

During a planning board meeting in October, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 237 expressed concerns about the company’s decision to hire a Louisiana firm for electrical work at the site. Dozens of IBEW members joined state Sen. Mark Grisanti, R-Niagara Falls and Buffalo, in questioning the company’s hiring decisions during the meeting.

Luc Nadeau, vice president of Norampac’s affiliate, Greenpac Mill, and Marc Romanowski, an associate with the company’s law firm, Harter, Secrest and Emery, attended the planning board meeting to request a one-year extension for a property layout tied to the site plan for the expansion project. The planning board approved the extension.

After the meeting, Nadeau said Norampac’s new plant would feature a state-of-the-art paper machine and, as a result, the installation would require what he described as specialized electrical work. He estimated that 40 percent of the work to be done by the Louisiana firm in the Falls would be given to local  electricians. Norampac officials also noted that the project would result in the creation of more than 100  new jobs once completed and as many as 200 jobs during construction. Nadeau indicated that the electric work in question represented a $12 million contract, what he described as a relatively small portion of the overall work.

Of the $150 million in contracts awarded for the project to date, Norampac spokesperson Geneviève Boyer estimated that roughly $135 million worth has been awarded to in-state firms.

In response to an email seeking comment this week, Boyer said the company has always considered local suppliers and workers since the start of the project.

“We want to encourage the region in which we are building the new mill. Most of the suppliers working on or supplying the project are from the state of New York, and we will be creating a minimum of 108 new permanent jobs in Niagara Falls when the mill begins its operations at the summer of 2013,” Boyer wrote.

Pryce and other local union leaders have suggested that there’s no such thing as a “small” contract in a community like Niagara Falls where construction work has been scarce in recent years. They also have suggested that there’s no work being done on the site that is so specialized that it can’t be done by members of local labor unions.

“We haven’t had the opportunity to show them what we can do,” Pryce said.