Northern Pulp Expects Waste Treatment Upgrade Not To Be Online In Time To Comply With Court Order | Local | New

The courts could ultimately decide whether the province is responsible for Northern Pulp's profit losses if the plant is forced to idle in 2020.

On Wednesday, Northern Pulp acknowledged that its new effluent treatment facility may not be operational by January 31, 2020, when provincial legislation requires the closure of Boat Harbor.

"The effluent treatment plant itself, the land portion, should be completed by the deadline," said Kathy Cloutier, director of business communications at Paper Excellence, owner of Northern Pulp.

"The discharge exit is where we face delays."

This outlet, where the plant will discharge approximately 85 million liters of treated effluent per day into the Northumberland Strait, is a matter of contention.

The Pictou Landing First Nation and badociations representing some 3,000 fishermen from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island have all announced their intention to prevent any effluent from occurring. Enter the strait.

The mill has changed its proposed route this summer due to fears about defatting the ice found on the ocean floor in a route that would pbad the pipe from the Abercrombie Point mill near the bridge. Pier to Pictou City, through the watershed of this Detroit near the Caribou-Wood Islands ferry.

Cloutier said the plant did not expect to be able to submit an EA before January, which means construction of this part of the project will not be completed by the provincial deadline.

"The Ministry of the Environment is waiting for any potential application. We hope that a constructive dialogue will take place by then.

– Ian Rankin, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal

But in a compensation agreement signed in 1995 with the Minister of Supply Services, Gerald O'Malley, with the former factory owners, taxpayers are held accountable, between other, "liabilities, losses, claims, claims, actions, causes of action, damages". (including, without limitation, lost profits, indirect damages, interest penalties, fines and pecuniary sanctions) …. resulting directly or indirectly from the construction, location or existence of the reconfigured facility or facility. "

This facility is Boat Harbor, which the province built for the plant in 1972 behind the Pictou Landing First Nation.

The province retains ownership of Boat Harbor, but rents it to the plant under an agreement that expires in 2030.

The Boat Harbor Act, pbaded in 2015 to compel the Pictou Landing First Nation to lift the blockage of a broken pipe so that the plant can restart, asks the province to close Boat Harbor by January 31, 2020 and clean it.

Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Ian Rankin told The Chronicle Herald that he was able to legislate to legislate on a contract.

It did not mean whether the province could be held liable for lost profits or costs of an unused plant, but Rankin acknowledged that the taxpayers had a financial responsibility related to the early termination of the Boat Harbor lease.

"We are certainly ready to discuss with the company the compensation that would be fair for its new effluent treatment plant," he said.

Already 200 million dollars

The province has already planned more than $ 200 million for the cleaning – which began – at Boat Harbor.

Rankin said he still did not have any figures on what taxpayers could pay for the new facility.

Northern Pulp also did not specify what part it expects the province to badume.

"We have always maintained that the province must meet its contractual obligations with respect to this lease," Cloutier said.

In the meantime, the fishermen have failed the company's work in preparation for its new effluent treatment route. Northern Pulp has contracted a research vessel for the work leading up to its environmental badessment. He was forced by fishermen to end his work earlier this month.

Without being able to complete this survey work, Cloutier said the plant would submit an environmental badessment plan containing "as much data as we can compile".

Rankin stated that it was not up to the province to intervene in the dispute between the opponents of the pipe and the plant.

"It's up to the company to have the necessary conversations with the community and the First Nation," Rankin said.

"The Ministry of the Environment is waiting for any potential application. We hope that a constructive dialogue will take place by then.

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