Ontario NDP leader presses for answers, accountability over shuttered Terrace Bay pulp mill

NDP leader Marit Stiles is callling for the Ontario government to do more to get the shuttered pulp mill in Terrace Bay to reopen. 

Stiles visited the community Wednesday to meet with local leaders and speak to media. Stressing the urgency of the situation, Stiles said the government needs to intervene, seek transparency from the company and explore solutions to protect jobs. 

"The longer the mill is idle, the more difficult it is to bring it back. Because workers, those who can leave, will leave," she said. 

In early January the mill's owners, AV Group, which is part of Aditya Birla, announced there will be a "temporary idling of its pulp operations, with immediate effect, due to prevailing market conditions," taking 400 workers off the job. 

"It's not about the market conditions; it's about the necessary investments into maintenance," said Thunder Bay—Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois. "What we hear from insiders is that the mill is viable and the price of pulp is viable, but the maintenance has not been kept up." 

Pulp mills are expensive to operate and maintain, according to pulp experts, and some mills have closed even when pulp prices are high due to the sheer capital investment required to operate them. These expenses have only ballooned as inflation and steel prices rise. 

"Everything should be on the table," said Stiles. "We would like to approach them really as potential buyers, if there is the possibility for a worker partnership…new ownership or even employee ownership ." 

Terrace Bay was once an economically thriving company town. The pulp mill, which was established in the 1940s, grew to employ thousands of people by the late 1970s. It fell on hard times in the early 2000s when the pulp and paper industry entered a period of uncertainty. 

Aditya Birla stepped up to buy the idled pulp mill in 2012. The mill was fined $250,000 after pleading guilty in 2015 to seven offences under the Environmental Protection Act, and was temporarily shut down in the wake of an explosion that killed a worker in October 2011.  

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said in a statement that it is supporting the forestry sector through multiple funding programs. 

"Our government will continue to explore all options for reviving operations at the AVTB mill, and support the Terrace Bay community throughout this process," said Melissa Candelaria, press secretary for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. 

The statement pointed to the Forest Sector Investment and Innovation Program, which has invested $41 million in 15 forest sector businesses, as well as the Ontario Forest Biomass Program, which is a $19.6 million investment to maximize the economic potential and environmental advantages of forest biomass, specifically underutilized wood and mill by-products.

Both Stiles and Vaugeois echoed what workers, union members and city officials have previously told CBC News: they want more answers from the company about the fate of the mill. 

CBC News has reached out to the company multiple times since the closure was announced last week, but has not yet received a response.

There's no word on when or if the Terrace Bay mill will reopen, if ever, or what the company plans to do — whether that means reopening it when market conditions improve or selling it to another company. In the meantime, it is keeping the pulp just warm enough to stay usable while workers wait to hear if they still have jobs.