Nova Scotia Reaches New Agreement to Restart Port Hawkesbury Mill
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The government of Nova Scotia reportedly has reached a new agreement to reopen the shuttered NewPage Port Hawkesbury paper mill, one day after a Canadian company's bid to buy the mill collapsed. The revised deal is with Pacific West Commercial Corp., Vancouver, B.C., Canada, which has offered $33 million for the 50-year-old, shuttered newsprint and coated papers mill.
The agreement means that money the provincial government had spent in an effort to restart the mill, which originally opened in 1962, could be repaid in as little as 12 years. This includes a $124.5 million aid package announced last month and $36.8 million the government has spent so far to keep the mill in a so-called "hot idle state" to be able to quickly resume operations. The $124.5 funding package included $66.5 million in loans, $40 million of which would have been repayable. The other $26.5 million would be forgiven if certain criteria including wage targets were met.
Pacific West Commercial said it plans to begin producing paper in early October. The mill shut down last September, throwing some 600 people out of work and affecting another 400 forestry contractors. At the time, NewPage cited the high Canadian dollar and increased rates for shipping and electricity as the reasons for its closure.
"Many people have worked extremely hard to arrive at this moment, and we will all continue to work hard together over the coming years to ensure that Port Hawkesbury remains the highest quality, most competitive paper mill of its kind in North America," company president Ron Stern said. The company has promised to rehire about 300 workers and operate one of the mill's two paper machines.
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