Trump's 'America First' policies threaten Newfoundland's last paper mill

The whistle that sounds at Corner Brook Pulp and Paper at 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. bookends the workday at the mill with comforting regularity. When the familiar sound suddenly vanished a few years back, people complained that they missed it and wanted it back.

As it turned out, the interruption was simply to allow repairs to the roof, and the whistle resumed after a couple of months.

Now people in the western Newfoundland mill town of about 20,000 fear the whistle could be silenced forever after the Trump administration levied countervailing tariffs on the mill's parent company, Quebec-based Kruger, earlier this month.

If that mill goes, so goes the forest industry in Newfoundland.- Lindy Vincent, Unifor Local 60N

"The mill is such an important part of Corner Brook," said real estate developer Trina Burden. "In all of the west coast [of Newfoundland], forestry is our biggest industry."

As of last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce is imposing a 9.93 per cent tax on all imports of uncoated ground wood paper, such as newsprint. The tariff amounts to a cost of more than $8 million a year for Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, making newsprint produced there less competitive. 

'Survival mode'

It's the last newsprint mill in Newfoundland, thanks to the falling fortunes of the newspaper industry in recent decades. The people of Corner Brook say they have been down this road many times before: hundreds of jobs have disappeared at the mill over the years, leaving a workforce of roughly 300.

"Over the years we have certainly seen the operation decrease," said Burden, adding that she remembers there being job cuts since she was a teenager. 

"I feel like we've been in survival mode for decades," she said.

Burden takes me on a tour of the subdivison she started developing four years ago. She plans a 40-unit condo as well as several lots of townhouses and single-family homes. But even before this blow, times in the housing market were already tough, and only one-fifth of the lots are developed.

Burden is concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump's protectionist policies will undermine the long-term viability of Corner Brook's founding industry.

"The Trump dialogue ... I felt like the only way I was going to be able to survive it is to say 'He can't affect me,' and now it's staring you right in the face."

The U.S. claims that a $110-million loan the Newfoundland and Labrador government gave to Kruger in 2014 was a subsidy, which gave the company an unfair advantage against competing U.S. paper mills.  

But that's not so, according to the man who was premier of the province at the time.

"There was no subsidy given to Corner Brook Pulp and Paper," says Tom Marshall. "We made a loan to them and we charged interest on the loan. They've been paying interest, is my understanding, since day one."

Kruger put up its power company — a $200-million asset — as collateral, said Marshall, guaranteeing that if the company were to default on the loan, taxpayers would still be repaid. 

Loggers also stand to lose jobs

In addition to the 300 direct jobs at the mill, dozens of loggers who cut the wood that is trucked to Corner Brook to be processed as newsprint also stand to lose their jobs.

"We've had struggles the last few years keeping that mill going in Corner Brook," said Lindy Vincent, a logger for 25 years and head of Unifor Local 60N.

Vincent said his 150 members are concerned about what the potential fallout from the U.S. tariffs could mean to loggers in 50 communities across Newfoundland.

"If that mill goes, so goes the forest industry in Newfoundland."

The Mayor of Corner Brook remains optimistic that Corner Brook Pulp and Paper will weather yet another storm.

"Our mill is very efficient," says Jim Parsons. "It has a power supply, of course, at Deer Lake Power, and the dollar has been relatively weak over the last number of years. So there's a number of things that have been going in our favour."

Marshall says the tariff is just wrong.

"It's an $8-million-a-year hit, and that's going to hurt," said Marshall. "They're trying to survive in a very, very tough environment."