Aug 25, 2025
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Cover photo: Point D, where treated Northern Pulp wastewater currently flows from Boat Harbour into the Northumberland Strait, just a few hundred metres from Pictou Landing First Nation.There is much to wade through in the documents Northern Pulp submitted to Nova Scotia Environment o
Unless I’ve suddenly lost my capacity to understand English, I can only conclude that the mill is admitting it doesn’t know (or doesn’t want to tell us) what will come out of the pipeline. It seems we are supposed to hope for the best and just wait until after the pipe has been laid (which Appendix F-H of the project documents tells us will be under two metres of soil and require a trench three metres deep and nine metres across being carved out of the Strait floor), and until after 85 million litres a day of treated effluent (37 degrees C in summer and 25 in winter, according to Appendix E) start gushing into the rich fishing grounds off Caribou Harbour, to find out if the effluent might contain harmful concentrations of harmful substances.
...
A pulp industry expert who requests anonymity tells the Halifax Examiner that most pulp mills put in oxygen delignification systems back in the 1980s or early 1990s, and that they pay for themselves in reduced chemical use. Northern Pulp, he said, is the only one he knows without such a system.
But even that is not the real issue at Northern Pulp mill, he says. Rather, the problem is its “ancient systems” that put “shit” into any effluent system that will be built. Genuine improvements in the mill’s environmental footprint, he says, would involve changing the mill’s processing system, and “tightening up loops” well upstream from the effluent treatment process.
In his view, the Northern Pulp project documents are riddled with “data manipulation,” prepared “purposely to make the stuff hard to understand.” And if I want to know how bad the effluent will be, he says, “just look at Boat Harbour.”
So I did.
If you’re having a hard time understanding why no one in their right minds is accepting of the information Northern Pulp is presenting, this is a somewhat long but very worthwhile piece to read.
Read the full story and comment on HalifaxToday.
HALIFAX — The parent company for the idled Northern Pulp mill says it has filed an appeal with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court related to a ministerial order issued last month for the management of the site.
The pulp mill stopped production on Jan. 31 after the province rejected its request to continue pumping treated effluent into a nearby treatment lagoon in Boat Harbour, N.S., near the Pictou Landing First Nation.
"We remain concerned that the environmental assessment, based on the current terms of reference, is ambiguous and would not result in a clear outcome," said Graham Kissack, vice-president for environment, health, safety and communications for Paper Excellence Canada.
"Pausing the assessment will provide time for us to further engage the community in discussion about the mill and its future, how we can best co-exist, and an appropriate environmental assessment process for the environmental improvement being proposed.”
The hibernation plan of the Northern Pulp mill, which prepares the facility for its indefinite closure, is on track to be completed by the end of April.
Northern Pulp will continue to use its Boat Harbour wastewater treatment plant until the end of April as the company prepares the facility for its indefinite closure.
On Wednesday, Northern Pulp announced it had received an order from Nova Scotia Minister of Environment Gordon Wilson that directs the continued use of its wastewater treatment plant to ensure hibernation of the Boat Harbour facility is done in a safe and environmentally proper way.
With their mill about to close, Northern Pulp workers are exploring their employment options, and many of those opportunities may be outside Nova Scotia.
Roughly 140 Northern Pulp workers attended a recruitment session by J.D. Irving that was held at the Northern Pulp mill on Tuesday.
"There are a number of skill sets of the workers which would be applicable at our other [operations], including shipbuilding, pulp and paper, and construction and equipment," said J. D. Irving spokesperson Mary Keith.
She said the company plans to hire 6,800 full-time positions by 2022, with 87 per cent of those jobs located in Atlantic Canada.
Nova Scotia’s forestry transition team will spend $7 million on silviculture work, a move Premier Stephen McNeil says should keep people working in the woods as usual for the next year.
Nova Scotia's forestry transition team will spend $7 million on silviculture work and forest road building, a move Premier Stephen McNeil says should keep up to 300 people working in the woods as usual for the next year.
The money will be for programs on Crown and private land in central and western Nova Scotia and is on top of what the province already spends.
"We want to make sure that all of those lands continue to be maintained and supported," McNeil told reporters following the team's inaugural meeting.
"Whether [Northern Pulp] reopens or not, we need the expertise of those who have been working on the ground and private woodlot owners who have been, in some cases for generations, nurturing hundreds of acres of land in our province and making a living off it and handing a better piece of land over to the next generation."
Tory Leader Tim Houston says the provincial government should have been ready to hit the ground running with its transition team intended to help forestry workers as the Northern Pulp mill prepares to shut down by the end of January.
Without a place to send its effluent, the mill cannot operate.
In announcing his decision, McNeil also detailed plans for a transition team that would include officials from multiple departments, the forestry sector and Nova Scotia Community College and work with a $50-million fund to help workers trying to determine their next step.
In a statement, a government spokesperson said officials remain committed to helping the workers and forestry sector deal with the loss of what is the largest player. The mill employed about 350 people and several thousand jobs within the sector have ties to the mill.
The rest of the transition team is expected to meet and be announced in early January, according to the statement and calls are already coming in to the toll-free number where "support and customized responses" are provided depending on the caller's needs.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil has delivered a decision that could define his time in office — his government won't amend the Boat Harbour Act, forcing the impending closure of Northern Pulp's effluent facility by the end of January.
Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Andrea Paul quickly became emotional as she spoke to reporters following McNeil's announcement.
"It's been a long time coming," she said.
Paul said she's grateful to the premier and government, as well as her community.
"This has been a very challenging issue. I know it wasn't going to be easy for people around Nova Scotia, and I don't take that lightly."
The premier's decision is "a huge statement" when it comes to respecting Indigenous people and their struggles, she said, and sets an example for others to follow.
"We know that marginalized communities are the ones that definitely get hurt the most in terms of not being treated fairly. And I really commend this government for setting the precedent to make things right. I know this wasn't easy."