Tag Archives: Bowater Mersey

Two more temporary shutdowns are being planned for Bowater Mersey in Nova Scotia.

Downtime will be taken:

• May 6 – 21
• June 17 – July 2

The downtime is being blamed on poor market conditions.

Source:
More Downtime Expected at Bowater Mersey (CKBW News)

Bowater Mersey in Nova Scotia started a 3-week shutdown yesterday.

Resolute Forest Products has said the shutdown is due to a saturation in the world markets as well as a shortage of new orders.

This is the second shutdown at the Bowater Mersey mill since before Christmas.

Late last year, unionized workers at the mill voted to cut 110 jobs in an effort to reduce labour costs and help save the operation, which used to employ about 300 people.

The provincial government also recently announced a $50-million rescue package aimed at saving the mill.

Source:
Bowater Mersey paper mill in Nova Scotia begins three-week shutdown (The Western Star)

Resolute Forest Products has been looking for forestry contractors in Nova Scotia for their Bowater Mersey mill and is now hiring contractors from outside of the province.

Resolute spokesman Pierre Choquette told the The Chronicle Herald that the company has placed advertisements in local media and online for the last number of years looking for harvesting contractors.

Choquette said their preference is to hire locally, if the contractor is available, qualified, and able to meet the company’s safety and environmental standards. However, when it hasn’t been possible to hire locally, the company has looked to New Brunswick and Quebec.

Choquette said of Bowater Mersey’s 18 operations contractors covering harvesting, trucking and roads, two are from Quebec and the rest are from Nova Scotia. Of those 18, there are nine contractors who just carry out harvesting – two are from Quebec and the rest are from Nova Scotia. Additionally, there is a contractor from New Brunswick who is not working but Choquette said they are expected back in the spring.

The Chronicle Herald contacted Wade Turner of J.A. Turner & Sons who own and operate a sawmill in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Turner easily identified the problem.

“Those guys are getting few and far between down here,” said Wade Turner. “The industry has gotten so bad a lot of those guys have pulled out and gone out west.”

The Government of Nova Scotia announced a deal with Resolute Forest Products in December that includes a $25 million, five-year capital loan, provided through the Nova Scotia Jobs Fund, for projects at the mill and the Brooklyn Energy Power Plant, and a $1.5-million grant, through the province’s productivity improvement program, that will be used to train the workforce.

Read more:
Bowater goes outside N.S. to hire forestry contractors (Chronicle Herald)

Resolute Forest Products is scheduling downtime at its Bowater Mersey mill in Nova Scotia.

The downtime will begin on March 11 and will last for 3 weeks.

A lack of orders is being blamed for the downtime.

Source: CBC

Bowater Mersey, in Nova Scotia, has cut the price it will pay for pulpwood cut on private land by 10%.

The price was cut from $36/tonne to $32.50/tonne, effective January 30.

This reduction is believed to be part of Bowater Mersey’s cost reduction initiative that has also seen 110 full and part time jobs cut at the mill.

Andrew Fedora, the executive director of the Federation of Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners, said the pulpwood price cut will affect hundreds of woodlot owners and small contractors in western Nova Scotia, who have already been feeling pressure after the closure of the NewPage Port Hawkesbury mill in Cape Breton.

“If the price was to drop a couple of more dollars a tonne, you could see a lot of people go out of business,” said Fedora. “I think the mills do realize that there is a threshold and they’ve always looked at that — that if you cut it too low, you’re going to completely lose your infrastructure.”

Pierre Choquette, the director of Canadian Public Affairs for Resolute Forest Products (Resolute is the managing co-owner of the mill), said the price change is in “response to supply and demand. It is about market conditions.”

Source:
Bowater cuts pulpwood pay by 10% (CBC)

Bowater Mersey is planning to install equipment to improve the heat recovery from the steam generated at the mill.

By recovering this heat, Bowater Mersey would be able to generate 3.3 megawatts of electricity.

This power could be sold to Nova Scotia Power.

First, the project must be approved by Nova Scotia’s community feed-in tariff program. The company has submitted its application to the province’s Energy Department.

Read more:
Bowater planning improvement in heat recovery from power plant (Chronicle Herald)
Bowater seeks approval for biomass project (Chronicle Herald)

Bowater Mersey had extended its shut down until January 16.

The extension is being blamed on poor market conditions in Europe. Bowater Mersey’s CEO, Brad Pelley, said “Selling paper in Europe right now is not a particularly attractive place to sell. Producer who have traditionally sold a lot of volume in Europe are now looking to other markets. There is also over supply issues in both Asia and Latin America as well…those are markets we traditionally serve and prices are being depressed as a result,” The company understands the economic uncertainty in Europe won’t improve in a week. However, he says by pulling some volume out of the market it may increase the demand for paper products.

The Nova Scotia mill has been shut down since Christmas.

Source:
Breaking: Shut Down at Bowater Mersey Extended (CKBW)

Nova Scotia has reached a deal with Resolute Forest Products (formerly AbitibiBowater), to purchase 25,000 acres of land for $23.7 million.

This land deal is part of Nova Scotia’s assistance package for the Bowater Mersey operation.

The land includes productive forests, old-growth timber stands, ocean and lake frontage, wetlands and some land of cultural significance to the Mi’kmaq.

“We will soon see highly valuable land back in the hands of Nova Scotians,” said Premier Darrell Dexter. “The purchase of these lands enriches our environment, provides us with more land to enjoy, and helps keep a major employer on the South Shore.”

As committed by Premier Dexter in December, the province will now work to increase public access to trails as part of the agreement with Bowater. This will ensure more Nova Scotians have a chance to experience the areas’ natural beauty.

Most of the land, located in Annapolis, Hants, Lunenburg, Queens and Shelburne counties, was identified by the Colin Stewart Forest Forum as having high conservation values and will be included in the protected land process.

The land purchases are consistent with the Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement.

A map and descriptions of the land are available at http://gov.ns.ca/natr .

Bowater Mersey laid off 20 non-unionized workers yesterday.

Pierre Choquette, a spokesman for Resolute Forest Products, told CBC News on Friday that non-union jobs are being cut as part of the mill’s restructuring plan.

Jim Peach, acting president of Local 141 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) told The Chronicle Herald that employees were being called in one at a time and told they were being let go. “This is another bad day, people are pretty down,” Peach said.

80 positions are being cut at the mill. 33 unionized workers have already taken severance packages, including former Local 141 president Courtney Wentzell. Some will leave on January 1, and others will stay on until June 30 to train other workers.

Nova Scotia recently announced it was giving the mill a $50 million lifeline for the next 5 years. Nova Scotia Power has reduced the mill’s power rate, the Region of Queens has given it a 15% tax break, and the Port of Halifax has given unspecified assistance.

Read more:
Bowater lays off workers – Mayor: Cuts to salaried staff regrettable, but part of plan to keep paper mill running (Chronicle Herald)
Bowater mill to lay off managers (CBC)

“The Government of Nova Scotia has shown leadership and commitment to the people it represents by stepping up to the plate to save hundreds of jobs at the Bowater Mersey Pulp and Paper Mill in Liverpool,” says Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter announced today that over the next five years the province will invest millions to help reduce the mill’s energy consumption, increase production efficiencies, and focus on innovation for the future, including training and other initiatives.

CEP’s Atlantic Regional Vice-President Chuck Shewfelt had high praise for the members of Locals 149 and 251 “who took the first step and made a very tough decision regarding their contract and manning levels. It is good news that the government has been able to take the next step to give the mill a viable future,” he says.

“Bowater is a significant employer in the region with significant economic spinoff,” adds Shewfelt, “and the government’s initiative will go a long way to ensuring that continues.”

President Coles pointed to this agreement as proof of what can be accomplished when all parties work together, something he has urged the federal government and other provincial governments to do to protect the forest industry.

“I have repeatedly called on governments at all levels, federally and particularly in Ontario and Quebec, to take similar measures to save jobs in an industry that is one of the cornerstones of our economy.

“Governments at all levels should step up to the plate to save the forest industry as they did for the auto sector.

“In most cases my pleas has fallen on deaf ears, with governments refusing to defend forestry jobs. The result is that hundreds of once thriving communities across Canada have turned into ghost towns.

“In this case, Stephen Harper could take a page from Premier Dexter’s book,” he added

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) is the largest union in several key sectors of Canada’s economy, including forestry, energy, telecommunications, and media.

Source: CEP