Latest news with #IrvingPulpandPaper
CBC
29-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
From pains to gains: How Saint John wants to improve trade infrastructure amid tariff worries
U.S. tariffs have Saint John business leaders and the New Brunswick government eyeing infrastructure in the trade-reliant city, including a notoriously problematic west end intersection. Envision Saint John CEO Andrew Beckett says the city has untapped potential in its trade infrastructure, and with ongoing tariff struggles from the U.S., the timing is ripe to broaden export horizons. Part of this involves improving the famously complicated Simms Corner intersection near the Irving Pulp and Paper mill. Beckett acknowledges the hardships that the tariffs will bring and says that they have already had an impact on the economic interest in the city due to uncertainty alone. "Over the past year to year and a half, we've been dealing with a lot of active files of businesses, industries that are potentially interested in locating some aspects of their operations to this area," Beckett said. This interest, he says, has largely evaporated. "We had 22 active files last year. We're down to one or two this year because in the current uncertain climate, businesses are just holding back in terms of any investments, changing their plans and delaying their plans as they try to figure out this new landscape." Saint John was thrown into the national spotlight last month when a Canadian Chamber of Commerce report said it would be the city hardest hit by U.S. tariffs. Out of the 41 cities in the report, Saint John came in No. 1 by a wide margin. 'How do we leverage that?' Beckett said the city still has local advantages that — over time —- could work to broaden the city's export opportunities. He's advocating for leaders to focus on existing trade-enabling infrastructure. "We've got a very active port that has existing trade relationships with Europe, South America and other places," Beckett said. Craig Estabrooks, Port Saint John's president and CEO, said Saint John — offering harbours that can handle large vessels — has location advantages over other ports. WATCH | Envision Saint John says there is untapped potential with local infrastructure: Saint John's business group sees opportunities to expand export markets 14 minutes ago Duration 3:40 Envision Saint John says the city's strategic location and the current trade landscape present an opportunity to improve trade infrastructure — and to diversify exports. "We connect seamlessly into three Class 1 railways and that's all through N.B. Southern Railway," Estabrooks said. Estabrooks says that the port currently has five weekly services that go north and south, with destinations to Latin America, the Caribbean, northern Europe and the Mediterranean. "So we have today an opportunity for Canadian exporters, if they should choose to look at trade diversification, we can help them do that today," he said. Estabrooks says the port is currently focused on investing in larger vessels and hopes to add a Trans-Pacific service to the port. "That's why we've invested so much in being able to bring in larger vessels because the fleet that goes transpacific is definitely larger vessels." He adds that there is also untapped potential in the city's industrial parks. Simms Corner: a key bottleneck Any increase in port volume, though, would mean in an increase in truck and train traffic at Simms Corner. Beckett said there is no better time for the city to seek federal funding for upgrades to Simms Corner, which is seen as a "critical bottleneck" in the national supply chain. "If we have increased container traffic coming through the port, there's an intermodal aspect of that that requires train traffic and truck traffic to move those containers," Beckett said. "That's going to mean longer and more frequent trains and more truck traffic going through Simms Corner — which is already a problematic area. When we're looking at activities like reducing interprovincial trade barriers, bolstering up and securing that national trade corridor is quite important." The federal government runs a National Trade Corridors Fund for infrastructure projects that manage the flow of goods and people in and out of Canada. Examples of this include airports, ports and railways. Beckett said that arguing the intersection is a national trade corridor could potentially unlock federal funding. The provincial government also recently expressed an interest in the area as well. At a recent council meeting, Mayor Donna Reardon announced she received a letter indicating the province had enlisted an engineering firm — EXP — to lead a redesign of the intersection, and is currently in the planning phase. The letter, attached to the council agenda, says Simms Corner "is a critical component to supporting and advancing the many Saint John businesses that help power the provincial economy." "This is more critical with the ongoing trade war imposed by President [Donald] Trump," said the letter. The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure said in a statement to CBC News that the province is currently collecting "traffic data and identifying risks at the intersection." "That's all going to take time," Beckett said.
CBC
26-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Pulp mill's parking lot plan hits 2nd delay in front of Saint John council
An Irving Pulp and Paper plan to turn part of Wolastoq Park into a parking lot hit its second delay with Saint John council. At the continuation of a public hearing Monday night, councillors said they want to see the company and city staff come to an agreement on community benefit. The company is asking the city for approval to convert 30 per cent of the park into a roughly 500-space parking lot to accommodate the workers needed for a $1.1-billion upgrade project. After a lengthy discussion, councillors voted to send the plan back to the city manager for further discussion, ultimately delaying a final decision. The nearby Simms Corner intersection and its well known issues played centre stage in the discussions, along with the loss of park space for the community. Many councillors expressed concerns about quality of life impacts. "At the end of the day, it comes down to a loss of park, a reduction of quality of life for those who live and use that area," Coun. Gary Sullivan said. "If you're losing a big hunk of park and increasing traffic and making their life tougher, what's the community benefit?" The public hearing on the proposal began two weeks ago at the Feb. 10 council meeting, but the issue didn't get resolved before the 11 p.m. scheduled end. The majority of speakers in that meeting spoke against the proposal, with five left to speak in favour of it. While a date for the item's return to council has not been determined, the city's general counsel, Melanie Tompkins, said council must vote on the bylaw change within six months or the application process would need to restart. One of the remaining speakers — Andy Carson, J.D. Irving's director of government relations — said projected traffic increases resulting from the Irving NextGen project won't hit the same peaks as traffic resulting from other projects. He pointed to the Harbour Bridge construction project slated to be near completion in 2027. Carson said traffic related to its construction will ease this year and while the Irving project will add traffic back into Simms Corner, it would never reach the peaks of traffic related to bridge construction. "Which isn't to say that there won't be an impact. That's still hundreds of cars. We appreciate that and we're going to work hard to try to minimize that impact as part of what we do," Carson said. Tim O'Reilly, the city's director of public works, said Irving doesn't take several factors into account, such as train growth, port expansion and other industrial growth. Irving wants the parking lot for workers who will be needed for the mill's $1.1-billion plan to replace its recovery boiler and increase pulp output. While J.D. Irving Ltd. owns the land, the company's proposal requires a zoning change. The proposal was announced in October and has drawn criticism from city residents and staff, but support from trade and union groups, the city's Chamber of Commerce, mill employees and others. Irving Pulp and Paper mill vice-president Mark Mosher and others say the upgrade would bring a significant economic boost to the city and province through job and tax revenue growth. Opposed residents and city staff members say creating a parking lot would effectively make the area unusable as a park. Carson also addressed concerns about green space loss and said the company is open to discussion with city staff about how it can support other park lands on the city's west side. Mayor Donna Reardon said the delay in making a decision was about doing the right thing. "I mean, 25 years ago when they purchased that, we didn't talk about mental health and we didn't talk about green spaces and we didn't talk about neighbourhoods," Reardon said. "But we've evolved since those 25 years and now those things are important to us as communities." J.D. Irving Ltd. bought the land overlooking Reversing Falls in 1998. The company announced layoffs early Monday to roughly half of its paper plant workforce. The layoffs were not mentioned in the parking lot public hearing.
