NDP critic calls for pulp-and-paper giant to appear before MPs

Charlie Angus, the NDP's natural resource critic, is calling for parliamentary committee hearings to examine who is behind the company that has become Canada's largest producer of wood pulp.

Angus says he will propose later this month that the House of Commons committee on natural resources summon Paper Excellence's chief executive officer to testify, along with Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne and others.

"I think it is incumbent on the company to be transparent. If not, I think we need to bring them before committee to get answers, to have the CEO testify and to be able to get access to documents so we know exactly how they are structured and what their connections are to forestry operations in Indonesia and financing from China," Angus told CBC News. 

Angus's comments follow a CBC News investigation into Paper Excellence, in conjunction with other media outlets, which was part of a wider look at the global forestry industry under the umbrella of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The investigation found that the people behind or associated with Paper Excellence appear to have a pattern of using thickets of corporations, including in tax havens, effectively shielding transactions and assets from public and government scrutiny.

The company won't open up about its past financing, some of which was facilitated at one point by a $1.25 billion US demand debenture with the China Development Bank, which is owned by the Chinese government.

CBC's investigation also found leaked records and insider accounts that show Paper Excellence, at least until a few years ago, appears to have been closely — and secretly — co-ordinating business and strategy decisions with Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the world's biggest pulp-and-paper players, which environmental groups have complained has a track record of environmental destruction.

Paper Excellence maintains it is completely independent from APP and is owned solely by Jackson Wijaya. Wijaya is a member of the family that owns both APP and the Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas.

With its recent acquisition of the Quebec-based Resolute Forest Products, Paper Excellence is now Canada's largest producer of wood pulp, managing nearly 22 million hectares of the country's forests.

Laurie Bouchard, a spokesperson for Champagne, said Thursday that Paper Excellence's acquisition of Resolute was subject to the Investment Canada Act's national security provisions and that Canada's lead security agencies were consulted on the transaction.

"Recognizing the need to ensure that this investment continues to be in Canada's best interests, as part of the review process, the investor has provided meaningful commitments to Canada which include ensuring strong levels of investment to facilities in Quebec, maintaining existing Canadian patents, maintaining Canadian participation on Resolute Canada's Board of Directors and senior management team, and adhering to Canadian employment and environmental laws," she said in a statement.

Angus says Canada's forests are fragile and a public trust of the Canadian people. He said it shouldn't take investigative journalism for Canadians to know how Paper Excellence operates.

"I found the information on this corporation to be very troubling. This is a company that is in control of vast swathes of Canadian forest. A lot of this is public land, forests that belong to the people of the country," he said.

"We have a right to know who owns this, their ownership structure, how their financing is run, what are their connections to the China Development Bank, what are their connections with Asia Pulp & Paper, what are their connections with this company in Indonesia. They need to be clear and transparent as a company operating in Canada's forests."

Mario Simard, the Bloc Québécois critic for natural resources, also has concerns about Paper Excellence; he worked unsuccessfully to convince the federal government to block its acquisition of Resolute.

"A quarter of Quebec's forests are passing into the hands of a company which we have seen in the past have questionable practices," Simard said in an interview.

Simard said he would like Paper Excellence to reveal its business plan and spell out its plans to invest in Resolute's mills in Quebec. He would also like guarantees that the employee pension plan will be properly financed by the company and wants to know whether it will continue developing cellulose filaments, which Resolute said in a 2020 news release can increase the resistance and durability of products. 

Green Party Co-Leader Elizabeth May said she has long had concerns about Paper Excellence as she watched it grow in Canada over the years.

"Without any real fanfare or anyone really noticing, it has bought up a huge chunk of Canada's pulp and paper mills," she said, adding she hadn't been aware that the company had received financing from the China Development Bank.

"We're very naive about foreign investment and we should be looking very carefully, especially with the extent of the role being played in Canada's pulp and paper industry with a company where we know so little about who really owns it, whose its interests are.…The investment by the China Development Bank should have rung some alarms somewhere."

The Conservative Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Elizabeth Thompson can be reached at elizabeth.thompson@cbc.ca. Zach Dubinsky can be reached at zach.dubinsky@cbc.ca