Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil today rejected a pulp mill’s plea for a deadline extension to allow it to continue dumping wastewater near a First Nation after Jan. 31.
B.C.-based Paper Excellence, the owners of the Northern Pulp mill near Pictou, had said a government refusal to meet their request would lead to the closing the mill.
Barring a last minute compromise, an estimated 300 employees at the mill will lose their jobs.
Dozens in Pictou County came out in support of Pictou Landing First Nation Thursday. They want the province to stick to its word to shut down Boat Harbour Jan. 31. (Craig Paisley/CBC)
So will an estimated 2,400 others in the forestry sector.
McNeil, who announced a $50-million transition fund to help affected forest industry workers across the province, said Northern Pulp’s owners had been given ample time to produce a viable plan to stop dumping effluence into lagoons near the Pictou Landing First Nation, a site that former Nova Scotia environment minister Iain Rankin once called “one of the worst cases of environmental racism in Canada.”
On Thursday, the company submitted plans to build a pipeline to pump 85 million litres of treated effluence daily into the Northumberland Strait instead of Boat Harbour, where the lagoons sit.
Richard Freeman, co-owner of Freeman Sustained Forests, told a rally Thursday that people in the industry want to see the lagoons cleaned up, but the Jan. 31 timeline is no longer achievable. (Paul Withers/CBC)
The submission came as rallies for and against extending the deadline were held and as the company repeated its warning that the mill would shut down if the government enforced the deadline.
Paper Excellence’s warning came after the government told the company on Tuesday that it had failed to provide enough information to allow for a proper assessment of the plan’s impact on human health and the environment.
Earlier this year, the company issued a statement saying “No pipe equals no mill.”
In response, McNeil replied, “The deadline is the deadline.”
With files from CBC, CP, CTV
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.