Tag Archives: Fort Frances

Fort Frances kraft mill downtime due to lack of qualified personnel

March 17th, 2012 | Posted in Mill Closures & Layoffs | 9 comments »

Resolute Forest ProductsResolute Forest Products shut down its kraft mill in Fort Frances, Ontario yesterday.

The downtime is being blamed on a lack of qualified personnel for the 2nd class stationary engineer positions.

The kraft mill will be shut down for 1 week. 70 employees are affected.

Pierre Choquette, director of Canadian Public Affairs for the company, told the Fort Frances Times: “We are continuously evaluating every aspect of our operations to see what are the best options going forward.”

Operations at the paper mill are not affected.

Source:

Kraft mill shut down (Fort Frances Times Online)

Resolute cuts 45 jobs in Fort Frances, Ontario

January 27th, 2012 | Posted in Mill Closures & Layoffs | 20 comments »

Resolute Forest ProductsResolute Forest Products (formerly AbitibiBowater), will not be recalling 45 people to work when they resume paper production next week.

The 45 job cuts represent approximately 16% of the Fort Frances workforce.

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada’s (CEP) Ontario vice-president Kim Ginter said the workers have a pattern collective agreement and the company will have to stick to the agreement. That means the union is not going to negotiate concessions to lessen the impact.

Ginter told the Fort Frances Times that the CEP will have to wait and see to know what its next step may be. “We’ve been told roughly that the numbers are 45,” he said. “But until we actually see names and the numbers and see how that comes down, we’ve got to ensure it doesn’t violate our recall rights and our seniority provisions. If it doesn’t, we live with lesser numbers.”

The kraft mill is scheduled to restart tomorrow. A paper machine will follow next week.

Paper production was curtailed at the mill at the end of November, and both kraft and paper production have been curtailed completely since Christmas.

Read more:
Fewer people to be working at local mill (Fort Frances Times)

Fort Frances mill soon to restart amidst rumours of job cuts

January 22nd, 2012 | Posted in Mill Expansions/Openings | 6 comments »

Resolute Forest ProductsResolute Forest Product‘s Fort Frances mill is scheduled to restart operations soon.

Paper production was curtailed at the mill at the end of November, and both kraft and paper production have been curtailed completely since Christmas.

One paper machine will restart during the first week in February. The company will monitor market conditions before restarting the second machine.

The kraft mill will restart on January 28.

CKDR, a radio station in Dryden, Ontario, is reporting that the company is planning to reduce its employee numbers in Fort Frances. Steve Boon, representative of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union says they are still trying to determine the impact on their members.

Sources:
Mill to start up again soon (Fort Frances Times)
Future of Fort Frances Mill Questioned (CKDR Dryden)
Fort Frances mill shutdown continues (The Journal)

Heavy toll on property taxes as mills close

January 20th, 2012 | Posted in Financial News | 1 comment »

The Kenora Daily Miner and News took a look at the impacts being felt on property taxes in northwestern Ontario communities as our mills disappear.

Some highlights:

Dryden

Property owners in Dryden will be hit with a 10% hike in their taxes this year. This is due to a $500,000 drop in tax dollars received from the pulp mill. Once the mill contributed nearly half the local tax dollars, but that percentage has been dwindling away to now less than 20% due to a sawmill closing, and the shutdown of 3 paper machines and one of two pulp lines in recent years.

The mill has been reassessed and will be paying $1.2 million in taxes this year.

Fort Frances

Resolute Forest Products (AbitibiBowater) has appealed their assessment in Fort Frances. The outcome of the appeal could result in the company seeing their taxes cut almost in half – possibly down $800,000 from the current $1.7 million they pay.

If the reassessment is approved, Fort Frances will have to also repay $2.2 million to the company for the 2009-2011 tax years.

To recover the loss (of about $2.2 million), the town will have to boost property taxes by 30%.

Atikokan

The Buchanan Forest Products owned sawmill in Atikokan closed several years ago due to bankruptcy.

Atikokan Council is debating the idea of a 1% provincial sales tax hike with the extra dollars going to municipalities, but that would only shift the tax burden, adding about $550 to annual household expenses rather than property tax bills.

Sioux Lookout

The average property taxes in Sioux Lookout are already the highest in the region ($2,575 in municipal and education taxes for a median valued $146,250 home). And now the town has to deal with the loss of another Buchanan owned mill, the MacKenzie Forest Products mill in nearby Hudson.

With no other major industry in town to fall back on, the town’s Mayor recently conceded that another tax increase is inevitable.

Kenora

In 2005 the city of Kenora lost $1.2 million of tax income when the paper mill closed. Now, several year later, it seems that there is more impact to come. The former mill owner, AbitibiBowater, is seeking a rebate of the taxes they paid in 2010 on two of the structures that were left standing on the mill site. The company is arguing that the remaining buildings should have been deemed damaged and unusable, not just vacant.

The rebate owing to AbitibiBowater may not be large, but with the tax income already spent for 2010, the rebate will have to be reflected on everyone else’s tax bill.

Property taxes in Kenora will be going up this year.

Read more:
Bad news for property owners (Kenora Daily Miner and News)

Resolute Forest Products appeals tax rate in Fort Frances, Ontario

January 5th, 2012 | Posted in Financial News | 1 comment »

Fort Frances, Ontario is awaiting a decision that will have a major impact on their town’s finances.

Resolute Forest Products (previously known as AbitibiBowater) has appealed their tax rate for their mill in Fort Frances. The appeal is now before the Municipal Property Assessment Corp.’s Assessment Review Board.

The appeal covers the tax years of 2009, 2010, and 2011. Resolute Forest Products wants their assessment lowered from $28,260,000 to no more than $15,010,000.

If the company’s appeal is successful, the town of Fort Frances will have to make a retroactive payment to the company of roughly $2.2 million for the municipal portion of the adjustment to the company for the years 2009-11.

A decision isn’t expected until late summer, 2012.

Read more:
Mill assessment appeal looms over town (Fort Frances Times)

Letter: Concerns about Abitibi

December 25th, 2011 | Posted in Misc. | 9 comments »

A message found in the ForestTalk.com inbox on this Christmas Day:

To Whom it May Concern,

On December 15th, 2011 Resolute Forest Products (aka Abitibi Bowater) announced that they would be commencing a formal Take-Over Bid for Fibrek Inc. with the maximum cash consideration available under the offer to be $71,541,556.[1]

On December 24th, 2011 my father also got an announcement from Resolute Forest Products in his mailbox about a similar dollar amount. He was told that as of December 31st, 2010 the company was short $71,794,000 in the pension fund and he could be losing a large part of his pension.

This is not a Christmas message anyone wants to receive.

It’s also not the first time Resolute (who I’ll refer to as Abitibi) has told this tale. In 2005 Abitibi also closed another of their mills in Kenora, Ontario putting an estimated 400 people out of work.[2] The last we heard it sounded as though all the employees in Kenora also had to sacrifice 11% of their Pensions,[3] and while it’s less than the 17% we’re being asked to sacrifice, it’s still a lot of money. Money people have worked years for, and money that amounts to millions for Abitibi.

But let’s talk again about what’s happening today. Today this has spread from Canada to the United States with at least 10 locations in Canada, and mills in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama being affected.[4] For times sake I’m going to focus on where it’s hitting my family and friends though, right here in Fort Frances Ontario.

To start, here in the Fort Frances Mill they now have employees working the jobs of 3 people or more which people struggle to do, but will just to keep their jobs. They have people who were formally out on compensation for injuries coming back in and working, cutting into their recuperation and possibly making their issues worse. They even have people who were once making a decent wage taking pay cuts of $10 or more just to stay on the job, but all of this is not enough.

Now they’ve officially announced that the mill in Fort Frances Ontario will be shut down and may not re-open unless “market conditions improve”[5] according to a company spokesperson. Market conditions that seem to be working out for Abitibi, because while they don’t have that 71 million dollars in pension money, they do have 71 million dollars to offer Fibrek stockholders in an attempt to buy more paper mills. They’re doing all of this while remaining in debt protection from both the American and Canadian governments.[6]

Since the devastating loss of 400 jobs in Kenora and even more elsewhere the senior staff at Abitibi have been flourishing. In 2009, the year before they threatened to take away 17% of everyones pension in the Fort Frances area they were doing quite well for themselves. Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Jacques P. Vachon made a profit of $831,578 from AbitibiBowater.[7] CFO William G. Harvey made a little less raking in just over a half million. He was just short of $600,000 with a total of $593,565 made that year.[8] Finally, Alain Grandmont, the Senior Vice President made $1,170,953.[9] If you added together the yearly salary of my grandfather, my father, and my uncle, (all of which are or were mill employees) it wouldn’t even equal a fourth of that amount.

Yes this not only affects my father, but also my grandfather who worked at the same mill for 40 years before retiring. My aunt who survives on the pension her late husband left her, and a family friend who struggles to survive on a paltry $300 every two weeks that she also receives from her late husbands pension fund. All of these people and many more will be asked to sacrifice while the CEOs are thriving.

This Christmas has been a strange one for us filled with fear, anxiety, and hope… that someone will do the right thing. This is just the information that I managed to gather in a night, but I plead with you to keep digging, and expose the injustices that are occurring here. Mostly though I just want to see the investments made by my, and the many other families affected by this protected. And I want to see this company do what’s right.

I’m not good at wrapping things up or writing a conclusion so I’ll leave you with a poem. My father wrote it. He’s a man who works in what may soon be the shut down mill in Fort Frances. I think he expresses better than I can how many affected by this series of events are feeling this holiday. I hope you and anyone who reads this agrees.

Happy Holidays,

Concerned.

December 24th and all through the house
No one was sleeping the paper mill quiet as a mouse
Fibrek cost 71 million the pensions shortfall
The CEOs are laughing and having a ball
As they hold the pensions over everyones heads
They stuff their mattresses with millions and fill the workers with dreads
If they sold one hog fuel boiler or mill they could pay the debt off
Borrow the money, or pay the debt off? The CEOs just scoff.
We’ll break the Unions, we’ll shut more mills down
There will be nothing left but small ghost towns
We’ll take from your Mother and Father and Grandparents too
Survival of the most greedy, and evil is what we do
You opened your contracts you opened the door
All we want now is more
and more
and more

Sources:

[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20111215-904909.html
[2] http://www.fftimes.com/node/72155
[3] http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1564620&archive=true
[4] http://foresttalk.com/index.php/2011/12/19/canadianamerican-resolute-forest-products-workers-unite/
[5] http://fftimes.com/node/247989
[6] http://www.thewesternstar.com/Business/Employment/2009-04-16/article-1463836/AbitibiBowater-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-in-Canada-and-U.S./1
[7] http://people.forbes.com/profile/jacques-p-vachon/567
[8] http://people.forbes.com/profile/william-g-harvey/150204
[9] http://people.forbes.com/profile/alain-grandmont/583

Resolute Forest Products extends shutdown in Fort Frances, Ontario

December 16th, 2011 | Posted in Mill Closures & Layoffs | 7 comments »

Resolute Forest ProductsResolute Forest Products (formerly known as AbitibiBowater) is extending the shutdown at its mill in Fort Frances, Ontario.

At the end of November, the company announced they would be curtailing their paper making operations in Fort Frances for the last 5 weeks of the year due to poor market conditions, but they said the kraft mill would still operate. Now, due to pulp market conditions, the kraft mill will go down at Christmas.

The restart of the mill at the end of January is dependent upon an improvement in market conditions.

Over 300 employees are affected by the temporary closure. A skeleton crew of staff will be kept on during the downtime. Other employees will be allowed to take vacation time.

Read more:
Mill shutdown extended (Fort Frances Times)

Resolute Forest Products curtails paper making in Fort Frances for the rest of the year

November 24th, 2011 | Posted in Mill Closures & Layoffs | 5 comments »

Resolute Forest ProductsResolute Forest Products, previously known as AbitibiBowater, is curtailing its Fort Frances, Ontario paper machines for the rest of the year. The downtime will start next week.

100 employees will be affected.

Poor market conditions are cited for the downtime.

Kraft mill operations are not affected.

Source:
Resolute shutting Fort Frances paper operation for 5 weeks, cites poor markets (Canadian Business)

Ontario gives energy rebates to Ainsworth Lumber, AbitibiBowater, Tembec, Georgia Pacific, and Domtar

September 2nd, 2011 | Posted in Funding Announcements | 1 comment »

Through their Northern Industrial Electricity Rate program, the Government of Ontario is helping 5 more companies with their power bills.

  • Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. – Barwick – $1 million
  • AbitibiBowater – Iroquois Falls & Fort Frances – $6.1 million (Ontario has already announced an initial rebate for AbitibiBowater’s Thunder Bay pulp and paper mill of over $7.5 million.)
  • Tembec – Kapuskasing – $7.9
  • Georgia Pacific North Woods LP – Englehart – $1.6 million
  • Domtar – Dryden & Espanola – $2.1 million

All companies are receiving their energy rebate for energy efficiencies achieved in 2010-2011. All companies will be eligible for further rebates.

Averaging $150 million per year in assistance, the three-year Northern Industrial Electricity Rate program is providing electricity rebates to large industries in Northern Ontario that prepare and implement comprehensive energy management plans.

Source: Government of Ontario

AbitibiBowater files tax appeal in Fort Frances, Ontario

May 20th, 2011 | Posted in Financial News | 5 comments »

AbitibiBowaterAbitibiBowater has filed an appeal with the Municipal Property Assessment Corp.’s Assessment Review Board for its mill property in Fort Frances, Ontario.

The appeal covers the years: 2009, 2010, 2011

AbitibiBowater wants to have the assessment lowered from $28,260,000 to no more than $15,010,000.

This leaves the town very concerned about its budget. If AbitibiBowater is successful, Fort Frances will have to pay a retroactive payment of roughly $2.2 million to the company.

Read more:
Town worried about mill assessment appeal (Fort Frances Times Online)