Latest news with #Northern Pulp
CBC
15-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Northern Pulp's decision to sell off assets a blow to N.S. forestry sector
For Todd Burgess and the rest of Nova Scotia's forestry sector, word that Northern Pulp is abandoning the idea of a new multi-billion-dollar operation near Liverpool was not the news they were hoping for. "It's devastating, really, for forestry in Nova Scotia," said Burgess, executive director of Forest Nova Scotia. "It's going to make it more difficult for woodlot owners to manage their woodlot properly, it's going to be difficult for forestry contractors to succeed and be profitable." Officials with Northern Pulp announced Monday night that a review of the proposed new bleached softwood kraft pulp mill and bioproducts hub would not generate the required 14 per cent rate of return to be deemed viable. Still looking for a mill Instead, the company is moving ahead with plans to auction off its Nova Scotia-based assets as part of a creditor protection process that's been ongoing for more than five years. Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton said he was disappointed but not surprised by the outcome. Rushton said the provincial government continues to be ready and willing to help bring a new pulp mill to the province, but he said such a venture would also require the participation of the federal government, and any proponent would have to "put skin in the game as well." "We're still having conversations, we're still interested and we will do everything we can to investigate a market for low-grade wood fibre," he said in an interview. Freeman Lumber in Greenfield was one of the operations that stood to gain the most from a new mill being situated a short drive away at the site of the former Bowater Mersey operation. Markets needed for low-grade products Marcus Zwicker, the company's chief operating officer, said the sector has struggled to find a market for low-grade byproducts from lumber production and harvests since Northern Pulp shut down in 2020. Along with the economic development that would have come from the construction of a new mill, he said the operation would have "substantially" increased the value of residual products that right now are mostly being used to produce heat and electricity. "And the value there just isn't the same as marketing a product that consumers can buy or use, whether that's tissue, cardboard, coffee filters, you name it — whatever comes from a pulp product," he said in an interview. "All of those things have a significantly higher value." Zwicker said he believes a pulp mill smaller than what Northern Pulp was proposing — and with a lower required rate of return — would be more likely to be viable for the province. Future of timberland He and Burgess both said they also have concerns about the loss of the greenhouses Northern Pulp used to maintain, which would produce millions of seedlings a year for reforestation efforts. Rushton said officials in his department are looking at potential options to fill the gap. The minister is also watching to see what happens with the process to sell off the nearly 200,000 hectares of timberland Northern Pulp managed. It's too soon to say if the province would get in on the bidding, but Rushton said he has a keen interest in seeing that the land remains for industrial use to the benefit of the forestry sector in Nova Scotia. Burgess said he's hoping that as the search continues to get a new mill in the province, attention also turns to other potential uses for waste products, such as expanded district heat projects. Trauma not easily forgotten Although Northern Pulp has not operated a mill in the province since failing to get environmental approval from the provincial government for a new effluent treatment facility, Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Tamara Young was thinking Tuesday about the site's legacy and what it leaves behind for the future. The mill used Boat Harbour, a former tidal estuary beside the First Nation, to treat its effluent. Former premier Stephen McNeil called it one of the worst examples of environmental racism in the province's history. Even after the taps were turned off in 2020, the community is still dealing with the fallout, and cleanup of the site remains years away. "For decades, our Nation bore the direct impacts of Northern Pulp's operations," Young said in an emailed statement. "While the mill closed in 2020, the trauma and environmental degradation it left behind are not easily forgotten — or forgiven."
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Northern Pulp to initiate sale of assets
Northern Pulp has announced it will initiate a court-supervised sales process of its assets after it confirmed it wasn't able to secure funding for a new mill project. In a news release Monday night, the insolvent company said the decision follows completion of a comprehensive feasibility study that concluded Northern Pulp could not achieve the 14 per cent internal rate of return required in a settlement agreement with the province to develop a bleached softwood kraft pulp mill and bioproducts hub near Liverpool, N.S. "Northern Pulp is thankful for the support and collaboration of the Province of Nova Scotia and local stakeholders throughout the feasibility study," the company said in the release. Northern Pulp, owned by Paper Excellence Group in British Columbia, said proceeds from the asset sales will repay debt incurred throughout the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act process, fund pension plans and contribute to site maintenance and closure costs. Remaining money will be allocated to the province. Northern Pulp has been under creditor protection since June 2020 after it closed its kraft pulp mill in Pictou County, eliminating 300 jobs and affecting another 2,000 positions in the forestry sector. The government ordered the shutdown after Northern Pulp failed to meet the province's environmental requirements for a new effluent treatment plant. At the time, the province's Liberal government said the mill in Abercrombie Point could no longer dump its waste into Boat Harbour near the Pictou Landing First Nation. In May of last year, a settlement agreement between the province and Paper Excellence ended years of legal wrangling. Paper Excellence withdrew a $450-million lawsuit against the province and abandoned plans to reopen its idled mill. The agreement said that if the company resumed operations elsewhere, it required an internal rate of return of 14 per cent. The company's most significant asset is 192,000 hectares of timberland in Nova Scotia. The province loaned the company $75 million in 2009 to make the purchase in an effort to protect jobs. Nova Scotia's minister of natural resources said Northern Pulp's announcement was "not the outcome we had hoped for." Tory Rushton said in a release that the province did everything it could to make a new sustainable pulp mill a reality in Nova Scotia. "From the outset, our government was at the table, working closely with the company to explore every viable option. We provided meaningful support and discussed programs like our Capital Investment Tax Credit that could have offered significant financial assistance." Rushton said the province remains "a steadfast partner with the industry in exploring how we might work together — and with the federal government — in attracting a new partner that sees the potential in doing business here," he said. He said the province will continue to support forestry families and communities. "We remain open to bold ideas and strong partnerships that put our natural resources to work in ways that benefit all Nova Scotians," he said. Earlier this year, officials with Northern Pulp filed paperwork requesting an extension of the company's creditor protection as it sought to determine if there was a viable future for its operation in Nova Scotia. The company is due back in court at the end of the week as part of the process. When the settlement agreement closed the history of the pulp mill's operation in Pictou County, it was announced that the focus would shift to conducting a feasibility study to consider if building a new operation at or near the site of the former Bowater Mersey Paper Company outside Liverpool would be viable. MORE TOP STORIES
CBC
15-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Northern Pulp to initiate sale of assets
Northern Pulp has announced it will initiate a court-supervised sales process of its assets after it confirmed it wasn't able to secure funding for a new mill project. In a news release Monday night, the insolvent company said the decision follows completion of a comprehensive feasibility study that concluded Northern Pulp could not achieve the 14 per cent internal rate of return required in a settlement agreement with the province to develop a bleached softwood kraft pulp mill and bioproducts hub near Liverpool, N.S. "Northern Pulp is thankful for the support and collaboration of the Province of Nova Scotia and local stakeholders throughout the feasibility study," the company said in the release. Northern Pulp, owned by Paper Excellence Group in British Columbia, said proceeds from the asset sales will repay debt incurred throughout the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act process, fund pension plans and contribute to site maintenance and closure costs. Remaining money will be allocated to the province. Northern Pulp has been under creditor protection since June 2020 after it closed its kraft pulp mill in Pictou County, eliminating 300 jobs and affecting another 2,000 positions in the forestry sector. The government ordered the shutdown after Northern Pulp failed to meet the province's environmental requirements for a new effluent treatment plant. At the time, the province's Liberal government said the mill in Abercrombie Point could no longer dump its waste into Boat Harbour near the Pictou Landing First Nation. In May of last year, a settlement agreement between the province and Paper Excellence ended years of legal wrangling. Paper Excellence withdrew a $450-million lawsuit against the province and abandoned plans to reopen its idled mill. The agreement said that if the company resumed operations elsewhere, it required an internal rate of return of 14 per cent. The company's most significant asset is 192,000 hectares of timberland in Nova Scotia. The province loaned the company $75 million in 2009 to make the purchase in an effort to protect jobs. Nova Scotia's minister of natural resources said Northern Pulp's announcement was "not the outcome we had hoped for." Tory Rushton said in a release that the province did everything it could to make a new sustainable pulp mill a reality in Nova Scotia. "From the outset, our government was at the table, working closely with the company to explore every viable option. We provided meaningful support and discussed programs like our Capital Investment Tax Credit that could have offered significant financial assistance." Rushton said the province remains "a steadfast partner with the industry in exploring how we might work together — and with the federal government — in attracting a new partner that sees the potential in doing business here," he said. He said the province will continue to support forestry families and communities. "We remain open to bold ideas and strong partnerships that put our natural resources to work in ways that benefit all Nova Scotians," he said. Earlier this year, officials with Northern Pulp filed paperwork requesting an extension of the company's creditor protection as it sought to determine if there was a viable future for its operation in Nova Scotia. The company is due back in court at the end of the week as part of the process. When the settlement agreement closed the history of the pulp mill's operation in Pictou County, it was announced that the focus would shift to conducting a feasibility study to consider if building a new operation at or near the site of the former Bowater Mersey Paper Company outside Liverpool would be viable.
