Region Archives: Canada East

A judge in British Columbia has granted an extension to Northern Pulp’s creditor protection until the middle of July, when lawyers for the company expect to present the court with details of a sales process. Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick granted the company’s request after a short hearing in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday during which a lawyer for Northern Pulp explained that multiple parties have expressed interest in submitting a bid on assets, but there was not enough time to work through negotiations before the May 2 deadline. …Although the parties are moving ahead with the no mill scenario, Williams told the court that officials with the company and the Nova Scotia government are pursuing other funding options that might help achieve the guaranteed rate of return necessary to make the proposed project in Liverpool viable.

NOVA SCOTIA — The Northern Pulp mill, which has been under creditor protection after it shut down more than four years ago, is seeking its second extension on a stay of proceedings this year. Northern Pulp announced it filed documents requesting the extension under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement until July 18. The company had previously requested an extension until early May, which Minister of Natural Resources Tory Rushton said the provincial government would approve. “The company will use this time to further advance preparations for a potential sale of its assets, should a new mill not be feasible,” the company said. “Additionally, Northern Pulp will continue discussions with various stakeholders and rights holders regarding the feasibility of establishing a new bioproducts hub in Liverpool, Nova Scotia.” The company previously said designing and building the bioproducts hub could cost more than $2.5 billion. …The hearing for the extension request is scheduled for Friday.

Premier Susan Holt’s bold talk about “eliminating” and “tearing down” interprovincial trade barriers still has a long way to go before it catches up with economic reality. …The two MOUs recently signed by New Brunswick say provinces will “build on” existing legislation, “strive to” open up trade, “encourage” other provinces to join in and “identity options” for harmonizing provincial regulations. …But so far she has not touched the big ones. Provincial policies require forestry companies licensed to cut wood on Crown land to sell that wood to mills within the province, for example. Kim Allen, with Forest NB, says those policies have created an integrated forestry sector that ensures there is enough wood to keep those mills running.  …”It is the province’s largest economic driver, so changing the flow of Crown wood could impact the value of the raw product that’s flowing out of the province… and put manufacturers at risk.

NEW BRUNSWICK — A New Brunswick government regulation, written to protect pulp and paper mills from high electricity prices, is forcing N.B. Power to increase the rate subsidies it offers mills this year by 35%, despite a deterioration in the utility’s own financial condition. The mill subsidies, which have been mandated by the New Brunswick government every year since 2012, have been set by the Department of Energy for the current fiscal year at $28.04 per megawatt hour, an increase of $7.29 over last year. The utility had not originally budgeted to finance a subsidy that large and said it has revised the expected cost of the program for this year to $16.6 million — up by $2.9 million. …Pulp and paper companies have defended the program in the past as critical to their long-term viability. But since the program began, N.B. Power’s own financial viability has become an issue.

Paul Veldman said his BMI Group wants the highest and best use for the idled pulp and paper plant in Espanola. The CEO of the southwestern Ontario brownfield redevelopment outfit is targeting late May to finalize a deal with Domtar to acquire the mill, a 16-megawatt hydroelectric asset, plus hundreds of acres of brownfield land and woodlands. The mill closed in 2023, taking away 450 jobs. Neither BMI or Domtar are disclosing the purchase price. Veldman said BMI had been spying Espanola as an acquisition target for a year, with discussions with Domtar heating up over the last couple of months when other suitors started coming forward. It culminated in the signing of an asset purchase agreement this week. …Veldman said BMI has latched onto the global phenomenon of alternative fuels and emerging technologies that create those products from wood fibre. …For Espanola Mayor Doug Gervais, there’s a palpable sense of relief in the community…

ESPANOLA, Ontario — A property redevelopment company has bought the shuttered pulp and paper mill in Espanola, a year and a half after Domtar indefinitely idled the plant and cut 450 jobs. Tillsonburg-based BMI Group announced the acquisition on Thursday, while Domtar says the closing of the sale is still “subject to customary regulatory approvals.” …The Espanola mill still has 32 employees who have continued to manage and maintain the site. BMI Group says it’s ready to start retooling the infrastructure for new uses. The company said it has successfully done this at properties in Ontario, Quebec and Michigan.  He says they are definitely focused on what opportunities there are to continue processing forest products there, including paper or new kinds of biofuels. Like other former mills the company has bought, there are “environmental challenges” including an on-site landfill that they’ll need to work with the province on executing a “closure plan.”

• Northern Ontario Business: Shuttered Espanola mill may have a buyer in BMI Group

Wesley Bourland

MONTREAL — Stella-Jones Inc. today announced the appointment of Wesley Bourland as Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, effective April 14, 2025. Mr. Bourland joins Stella-Jones with a wealth of experience as a senior operations professional. He served most recently (2024–2025) as Chief Operating Officer for a leading supplier of hardwood lumber in North America, Europe and Asia, where he was responsible for 30 manufacturing and warehousing facilities across the U.S., including sawmills, concentration yards, and distribution facilities, and served as its Vice President of Operations from 2021 to 2024. …A trained Mechanical Engineer with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas at Austin, Mr. Bourland will leverage his expertise in manufacturing, strategic planning and process optimization to steer the Company’s operations and deliver further alignment in key areas of the business, such as Procurement, Environment, Health and Safety, and Engineering and Innovation.

Louis Lafleur

…Louis Lafleur is the president of Les Boisés Lafleur, in Victoriaville, Quebec. They add wood veneers from maple, ash, and eucalyptus to plywood used for countertops and furniture. … He exports three-quarters of his finished product to the U.S. and was dreading duties. At first, his American clients, who were convinced tariffs wouldn’t stay in place long, said they’d pay a little more to help absorb the hit. The U.S. tariffs on his exports haven’t materialized, but in February, before he left office, Justin Trudeau announced a counter-tariff on $30 billion worth of goods entering Canada from the U.S. — including the category of wood Lafleur uses for his veneers. He imports all of his wood from the U.S., and he’s been paying a 25 per cent duty on those imports since March 4. “My clients are saying, ‘now you’re complaining because your government [adds] a tariff?’ We look a little stupid,” Lafleur says.

In April 2023, close to 600 USW activists, staff and retirees from across the country gathered in Toronto for the 55^th USW National Policy Conference, this central body that guides our union’s direction in Canada. Under the theme Engage, Mobilize, Organize, conference delegates debated dozens of policy resolutions submitted by USW locals from every region of the country. …Led by the USW Wood Council… Steelworkers continue to lobby the federal government to seek a fair and equitable resolution to the softwood lumber dispute with the US. The union also is advocating for the federal and provincial governments to develop a co-ordinated, intergovernmental strategy to reduce the export of raw logs, ban raw log exports from old-growth forests, impose progressively higher taxes on log exports from second-growth forests and provide incentives for the domestic manufacturing of raw logs into finished products.