Days after a New Brunswick pulp mill announcedits temporary closure, the province’s premier said it will have wider implications. “This has serious impacts on the supply chain, companies that are impacted well beyond the boundaries of Nackawic and including many northern forestry companies,” she told reporters on Monday. Last week, AV Group NB Inc. announcedthe “temporary idling” of its Nackawic pulp mill, citing challenges from “market conditions and broader macroeconomic factors.” Holt said she’s closely watching the company’s other pulp mill in Atholville. “Circumstances in Atholville are a little different in terms of both the physical infrastructure as well as the geographic location and their proximity to port and to rail,” she said. “But the ‘what if’ scenario applies across the province. We’re looking at the impact on the forestry sector as a whole.” Campbellton Regional Community Mayor Michel Soucy is hearing a good report about the Atholville mill. “Even this morning I had a discussion with one of the officials there in Atholville and things are going fairly well, the production is good, the quality’s good,” Soucy said. Like Nackawic, Campbellton is highly dependant on the mill for its local economy. “Families are involved. We have employees that are thinking, ‘Well. you know what, I don’t know what, what will be the future of our mill, how it’s going to work out,’” he said. Soucy recalls working at the Atholville mill when it shut down in 1991. It re-opened in 1998. “Hopefully it will just be a cycle, because you know in the past we’ve seen that, we had different cycles. There’s some ups and downs and sometimes it’s just a matter of adjustment and we can put it back on track,” he said. Holt said her priority is the Nackawic employees impacted by the mill’s closure. “Making sure that the people who got this kind of devastating news last week know that the government is here to support them and their families and help them when it’s hard to pay their bills,” she said. Grant Charlton, president of Unifor Local 219 and a chemical plant operator at the mill, said the closure wasn’t a surprise, but it was a shock. “Even though it was kind of in the back of our minds, when it finally came down it still felt very sudden,” he said. The union is working with AV Group NB Inc. and the province to find a way to re-open the mill. The consequences for many, if it remains closed, are life changing. “People have set their lives up around that community, and we have a lot of long-term, long-time employees,” he said. He’s optimistic that, with the right investor, it will re-open. He’s soon to be out of work and like the 227 other employees in the union impacted by the closure, he’s looking for a new job. “It’s stressful. Obviously it’s not exactly a booming job market at the current time,” he said. AV Group NB Inc. did not provide CTV News with an interview by deadline. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
