Latest news with #forestry sector
CBC
05-08-2025
- Business
- CBC
Carney announces over $1B in supports for clobbered softwood lumber industry
Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to use Canadian lumber to build homes and provide financial supports for the forestry sector as the U.S. hikes duties on the softwood industry. "We will be our own best customer by relying on more Canadian lumber for Canadian projects," Carney said at the announcement held a manufacturing mill in West Kelowna, B.C., Tuesday. The sector has been a longstanding target of the U.S., which recently raised anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood. B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar described the hit as a "gut punch" for the province's forestry industry which has seen thousands of workers laid off over the last few years. Carney called the duties "unjustified" while promising to move the industry away from its dependence on the U.S. market. "This dependence creates costly uncertainty," he said from the Gorman Bros. Lumber Ltd. mill. "It weakens our industry's ability to weather downturns. It makes lumber more expensive." WATCH | Carney announces supports for softwood lumber: Carney announces $700M in loan guarantees for softwood lumber industry 12 minutes ago The prime minister unveiled a suite of new measures Tuesday that he promised would help the industry serve a growing Canadian market "and those of new, reliable trading partners around the world." Carney said his government will use Canadian lumber and workers as part of its promise to build affordable homes. The Build Canada Homes program, promised during the election campaign, will launch this fall and provide up to $25 billion in financing to private sector home builders. "We are going to write our own story rather than letting others dictate theirs to us," he said. Carney also announced up to $700 million in loan guarantees for forestry companies and $500 million, largely in grants and contributions, to spur product development and market diversification for the hard-hit industry and millions for reskilling lumber workers.
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.
