PORT ALICE, BC — North Vancouver Island’s Port Alice was founded as a municipality because of its pulp mill. The mill was owned and operated in the early days by Whalen Pulp and Paper Mills of Vancouver — a family business endeavour by the brothers Whalen. Construction began on the mill in 1917 and it produced its first pulp just one year later in 1918. …The mill had a full life up until it was closed permanently in 2015, with 97 years of operation under its belt. Five years after its closure, residents were shocked to find out that Neucel Specialty Cellulose — the latest owner of the mill who’d purchased the operation in 2005 — successfully filed for bankruptcy. When Neucel bought the mill, it had already been in a state of bankruptcy a year prior to their purchase of the operation.