AMHERST, N.S. — Darrin Carter is afraid for the future of his company and those who have come to depend on him.
“I don’t know what to think, I’m very scared,” said Carter, moment after Premier Stephen McNeil announced his government would uphold the Boat Harbour Act of 2015 and not provide the owners of the Northern Pulp Mill in Pictou an extension on its plan to treat effluent from the mill. “I have to go back and face 20 employees.”
Carter said 100 per cent of the work he does in Cumberland County goes to Northern Pulp and he fears losing the contract with the pulp mill will put him out of business and force him into bankruptcy.
His company owns 4,000 acres in the county, the value of which, he said, was just cut in half with the premier’s announcement.
He has several million dollars worth of equipment and a million dollars in loans that he’s afraid he’ll be unable to pay back.
“I have a lot of thinking to do,” he said. “I think the premier should have kept Boat Harbour open until there was a plan, but he doesn’t feel that way. I’m afraid for my employees. They don’t have a lot of money in the bank. They work paycheque to paycheque. I’m scared for them as much as I am for myself.”
John Baxter has a 500-acre property of his own and does silviculture work for others.
“This is devastating to us,” he said. “We have 15 people working for us in total, and about five of them work in the woods. One of my operators just texted me to ask whether he should keep cutting today or shut down. How do I answer that? My company’s diverse and this is going to affect every part of it.”
Ian Ripley, general manager of Athol Forestry just outside Amherst, said Cumberland County is the largest wood producer in Nova Scotia and a high percentage of that wood makes its way to Pictou County.
Now the tap is going to be turned off.
“I’m extremely disappointed with his lack of common sense on the repercussions that are going to come out of this decision,” Ripley said. “Whether we talk about the health of our forests or the value of our forestry assets, this is a very sad day for forestry in Nova Scotia and here in Cumberland County.”
“It’s the exact opposite of what we’ve all been looking for. He has proven today his government is incapable of running this province. How can British Columbia have an industry with three pulp mills and we can’t have one?”
-Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin
Cumberland County produces, on average, 20 per cent of the province’s wood supply annually. He said there are 800,000 acres of forest in the county worth more than $400 million.
“The announcement just put those values in the toilet,” Ripley said. “We’re left with the value of just bare land because there’s no timber value left. It doesn’t have much worth to the owners.”
He compared the premier’s announcement to a light switch being turned off.
“A light switch just got turned off and our businesses are going to suffer because they just lost 50 per cent of their customer base,” he said. “This isn’t the transitioning to something better the premier was talking about.”
He said shipping to other markets, as suggested by the premier, is not an option since there’s a voluntary ban on exporting both hardwood and softwood logs outside the province because of the presence of pests in the wood.
It’s also going to impact wood coming into the province from southeastern New Brunswick.
Last straw
Ripley said the last few years have been difficult ones and he feels this will be the straw that breaks the industry’s back.
He estimates as many as 600 people work in forestry in Cumberland County and it is responsible for the harvesting of 20 per cent of Nova Scotia’s wood.
“This is going to hit this area very hard,” Ripley said. “These are inclusive jobs. They’re not going to be able to run to the hospital or the factory to find jobs. We’ve been inclusive to a large cross-section of workers and it’s going to be extremely tough for those people to find alternate ways to make a living.”
Jonathan McClelland of the Cumberland Business Connector said a closure of Northern Pulp will force Cumberland County into recession. Times have already been difficult in the blueberry industry because of low prices. This just compounds that, he said.
“There’s no question we’ll be in recession. This combined with what’s happened in the blueberry industry, that $50 million fund the premier talked about today could be entirely spent in this county alone,” McClelland said.
He fears this is going to lead to a mass exodus of people from the county.
Disappointed and concerned
Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin is disappointed and concerned for those in the industry.
“It’s the exact opposite of what we’ve all been looking for,” said the MLA, who watched the premier’s announcement at the Community Credit Union Business Innovation Centre with a group of area foresters. “He has proven today his government is incapable of running this province. How can British Columbia have an industry with three pulp mills and we can’t have one?”
The MLA said the premier should have met with Northern Pulp’s owners behind closed doors until an agreement was arrived. She’s afraid of what it’s going to do to the economy of Nova Scotia.
“We should be working on growing our economy and creating jobs, not this. This is the reverse,” she said.
Cumberland South MLA and the PC forestry critic Tory Rushton said he’s “gutted” the premier did not stand up for jobs.
“It’s a sad day for the thousands of Nova Scotians who work in or linked to the forestry industry. My thoughts are with all the families who are going to be spending the holiday season worrying about the future of their jobs and how they will put food on the table,” Rushton said in a news release. “The premier’s choice today, even with the transition package, will leave many communities in a state of uncertainty for the foreseeable future.”
To Rushton, if the premier had set out clear expectations and timelines with a proper environmental assessment five years ago, perhaps Northern Pulp would have been able to meet their standards.
“Instead, the McNeil Liberals chose to leave this decision to the 11th hour - a decision that will result in many hard working Nova Scotians losing their jobs,” Rushton said.
RELATED:
- VIDEO: Nova Scotia sticks to Boat Harbour deadline; Northern Pulp confirms shutdown
- 'Devastated:' Northern Pulp decision could destroy Cumberland County's forestry industry
- 'Dark day': Pictou County braces for Northern Pulp closure
- Rally in Pictou Landing urges premier to honour Boat Harbour Act
- Hundreds rally outside Province House to keep Northern Pulp mill running
- Northern Pulp will close without Boat Harbour extension, mill's parent company says
- Premier will release decision Friday on Northern Pulp and Boat Harbour
- Northern Pulp says its future at risk after environment minister's decision on effluent plant assessment
- No risk is acceptable, says Pictou mayor after province's decision on Northern Pulp treatment plan
- Ottawa won't do in-depth assessment of Northern Pulp effluent treatment plan
- BACKGROUND: Expected Northern Pulp, Boat Harbour decisions come after years of controversy
- TIMELINE: A post-colonial history of Boat Harbour
