{"id":8954,"date":"2025-07-15T10:26:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T13:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=8954"},"modified":"2025-07-15T17:38:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T20:38:20","slug":"no-mill-for-liverpool-as-northern-pulp-pledges-sale-of-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/07\/15\/no-mill-for-liverpool-as-northern-pulp-pledges-sale-of-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"No mill for Liverpool, as Northern Pulp pledges sale of assets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Northern Pulp says it will sell its assets, after deciding a new mill in Liverpool doesn’t make business sense. (Harry Freeman and Son Limited via Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n

UPDATED Tues., July 15 at 5:40 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Northern Pulp will sell its assets, killing the idea of a new kraft pulp mill in Liverpool.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company, owned by Domtar-controlled Paper Excellence, has been under creditor protection since June 2020 after it closed its pulp mill in Abercrombie Point, Pictou Co.<\/span><\/p>\n

It announced in a news release Monday evening that it would begin the process to sell off its holdings.<\/p>\n

Tory Rushton, Nova Scotia\u2019s natural resources minister, told QCCR on Tuesday that the province did all it could to make the Liverpool mill a reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSurprised, a little disappointed. This has been a waiting game for landowners and people that supply low-grade wood ffibe to the market.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cQuite frankly, the province and the government have been working very hard on this project and I think we laid our cards on the table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Northern Pulp announced in March that a nine-month feasibility study found that a new $2.5-billion mill in Liverpool didn\u2019t make business sense. It required an annual rate of return of at least 14 per cent and it said that wouldn’t happen without a significant amount of government support.<\/span><\/p>\n

The province granted the company\u2019s request for more time to look for more funding for the project. Monday\u2019s announcement made it clear they weren\u2019t successful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rushton said the new facility would have provided a much-needed industrial customer for the low-grade wood fibre produced by private woodlot owners and mills like Harry Freeman and Son Limited in Greenfield.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>For the whole area, the whole forestry sector in Nova Scotia, I’m certainly not taking my hands off the steering wheel here. We’re going to carry on, and the conversation about a mill, I’m sure it will pop up again and we’ll be at the table to have those conversations, but right now we’re still investigating and working with the sector to achieve a market for the fibre.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last May, the province announced a deal to settle the company\u2019s $450-million lawsuit against the province after Northern Pulp was forced to close its mill because of environmental concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under that agreement, the company said it would look into opening a new bioproducts mill in Liverpool.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its news release Monday evening, Northern Pulp said the court-appointed monitor Ernst & Young would begin the sale process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Liverpool was a thriving mill town for more than 80 years. Bowater operated a pulp and paper mill in nearby Brooklyn from 1929 to 2012, which employed thousands of people in Queens County over its lifespan.<\/span><\/p>\n

But reaction to a new mill was mixed, given Northern Pulp\u2019s environmental record.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ashley Christian, president of the South Queens Chamber of Commerce, said she believed a new mill in Queens County was a real possibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the idea of the mill of a modern bioproducts mill was exciting from an economic standpoint for Queens County, we did have some concerns and reservations about Northern Pulp’s past, their reputation, and environmental record,\u201d she said Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was expecting the mill to go through based on the conversations that I’ve had with individuals in the forestry sector, it felt like they were pretty confident as well. So I was a bit surprised. \u2029But again, I think it was probably the right decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nomillinliverpooljuly1525.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED Tues., July 15 at 5:40 p.m. Northern Pulp will sell its assets, killing the idea of a new kraft pulp mill in Liverpool. The company, owned by Domtar-controlled Paper Excellence, has been under creditor protection since June 2020 after it closed its pulp mill in Abercrombie Point, Pictou Co. It announced in a news […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2955,745,2872,111,1668,3275,2259,39,2873,2225,2226,2227,49,719],"class_list":["post-8954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-bioproducts-mill","tag-bowater","tag-domtar","tag-freeman-lumber","tag-greenfield","tag-harry-freeman-and-son-limited","tag-kraft-pulp-mill","tag-liverpool","tag-mill","tag-northern-pulp","tag-paper-excellence","tag-pulp-mill","tag-queens-county","tag-tory-rushton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8954"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8962,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8954\/revisions\/8962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}