Northern Pulp to consider its 'future' as N.S. calls for more work on effluent plan
Environment Minister Gordon Wilson says he needs science-based information
"The most important result at the end of the day is that we have an outcome that protects the environment, that weighs in all of the competing interests that there are out there, and the decision at the end of the day is one that's based on science and best evidence," Wilson told reporters in Halifax on Tuesday.
The minister has ordered the Pictou County pulp mill to complete an environmental assessment report.
Wilson said he's well aware of the potential implications of his decision and how many people it affects, but the minister said his focus can only be on the application itself and whether it has met requirements to address risks to human health and the environment and explain how they would be mitigated.
"It is a decision I think that did weigh on me very heavily, but it is one I feel very confident is the right decision."
Company reviewing options for the future
Brian Baarda, CEO of Northern Pulp's parent company Paper Excellence, said in a statement it is disappointed with Wilson's decision and is considering its options for the future.
"Our team put forward an in-depth plan based on sound science that showed no meaningful environmental impact, represented a significant operational improvement, and ensured Nova Scotia's forest sector and the thousands it employs could remain a vital part of our economy," he said in the statement.
"Currently, we are reviewing the decision and our options for the future of Northern Pulp."
The province had until Tuesday to decide whether or not to approve Northern Pulp's proposal for a new treatment facility that would pump up to 85 million litres of treated effluent daily via a pipeline into the Northumberland Strait.
The terms of reference for the report will be released by Jan. 10, followed by a 30-day public comment period. From there the mill would have up to two years to submit its environmental assessment report.
That means the matter will run squarely into the terms of the Boat Harbour Act, which calls for the mill to stop sending effluent to its current treatment facility in Boat Harbour by Jan. 31, 2020.
Government officials confirmed Tuesday the mill has filed an application to extend its industrial approval but would not say what that might mean for Boat Harbour on Feb. 1. Wilson would not speculate about what would happen if they company tried to use Boat Harbour to treat effluent after the act's deadline.
The one person who can answer that question, Premier Stephen McNeil, wasn't speaking Tuesday. He's scheduled to address reporters on Wednesday. Baarda called on McNeil to make a decision about extending the act as soon as possible.
McNeil has repeatedly said he has no reason to consider an extension because the company does not have approval for the new effluent treatment project. To make a change would require recalling the Nova Scotia Legislature before the end of January.
Andrea Paul, the chief of nearby Pictou Landing First Nation, is happy the province is asking for more information.
"That's what we've been asking for from the very beginning," she said. "To make sure that the science that they're providing is not going to have any harm on our resources, it's not going to harm our fish, it's not going to harm the air and it's not going to harm the land."
She said she isn't worried the province will backtrack on its promise to shut down at the end of January the facility at Boat Harbour, a former tidal estuary adjacent to the First Nation that has been handling effluent for five decades.
"It's not going to change," she said of the deadline.
Pictou Landing elder Louise Sapier remembers what Boat Harbour was like before it became a dumping ground for effluent in the 1960s.
"That was our playground," she said. Sapier said there was "a lot of good memories back then," and remembers swimming and catching "fish with our bare hands."
Wilson received more than 6,000 pages of comments from the public and government reviewers to consider as part of making his decision.
In a letter to the mill, Wilson wrote there wasn't enough information in the company's focus report about possible impacts on fish and fish habitat or human health, something he said was highlighted in comments from federal and provincial reviewers and from Pictou Landing First Nation.
Wilson also raised concerns about the lack of certainty about raw wastewater characterizations and the limited amount of information the mill provided on that and air emissions. There also wasn't enough information about the effectiveness of a thicker pipe that would be used to move the effluent to the Northumberland Strait or how possible leaks would be detected and addressed.
Further consultation with the Town of Pictou is also required to address their concerns about the pipeline route and the fact it crosses the town's watershed, Wilson told the company.
More uncertainty for forestry industry
Unifor national president Jerry Dias, who represents the 350 workers at the mill, said the timing of the minister's ruling "is horrendous."
"What is has done is really put a huge cloud over 2,700 direct workers over the Christmas period," he said.
Dias criticized the premier for "not fighting for jobs" in the forestry sector and said McNeil has to amend the Boat Harbour Act.
Jeff Bishop, the executive director of Forest Nova Scotia, said Wilson's decision means more uncertainty and anxiety for people employed in and connected to the forestry industry. Thousands of people's jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue are tied to the mill's existence, according to a recent economic impact assessment by the union.
Bishop said he believes Northern Pulp has worked as hard as it can to satisfy the government's requirements to get an approval of the project, but the bar keeps moving.
"What the process seems to be doing is as certain information comes in and questions are answered, it begs new questions."
Robin Wilber, the president of Elmsdale Lumber, which employs about 50 people in the forestry industry near Pictou, said he expected the minister to either approve or reject the project, not simply seek more information.
Wilber said mills such as his rely on Northern Pulp for their operations to be viable because it gives them a place to send what's left over after they turn logs into lumber.
Landowners and businesses like his will all suffer without markets for low-grade wood products, said Wilber.
Allan MacCarthy, a spokesperson for the Northumberland Fishermen's Association, welcomed Wilson's decision. For the last two years he and other fishermen have argued there are too many unknowns about how the treated effluent would affect their livelihoods.
"It's going to make everyone feel a lot more secure," he said. "There's a big weight lifted from everyone's minds today."
Ecology Action Centre wilderness co-ordinator Ray Plourde said Wilson made the right call.
"Certainly I and a lot of stakeholders across the province would have liked to have seen this project be rejected, but if I were in the minister's shoes, I probably would have done exactly what the minister did do, which was the follow the terms of his responsibilities without prejudice."
Plourde said it's clear politics didn't influence Wilson's decision and he thinks the mill's application for an updated industrial approval should be rejected.
'Spectacularly incompetent'
Opposition politicians said Tuesday's outcome shows the government's approach to the matter has been flawed from the start.
Tory Leader Tim Houston, who is an MLA in Pictou County, said the government should have just required a more involved Class 2 environmental assessment in the beginning. He said he still doesn't see enough information from the mill that would make him support an extension of the Boat Harbour Act.
"This should have been a higher level of scrutiny from the beginning and in fact the federal government should clearly be involved in this in file and the fact that they're not is a huge disappointment to me."
NDP Leader Gary Burrill was blunt in his assessment of the situation.
"I think it is spectacularly incompetent for Northern Pulp to come, now a second time, with a report that the Department of Environment says is inadequate in what it says about water, inadequate in what it says about land, inadequate in what it says about air," he said.
"What else is there besides water, land and air for the Department of the Environment?"
Both Burrill and Houston criticized the premier for not being available to answer questions on Tuesday given how vital the issue is for so many people in Nova Scotia.
P.E.I. fishermen, Indigenous groups pleased with Northern Pulp decision
'There's still obviously that big elephant in the room, being Boat Harbour and the Boat Harbour closure'
P.E.I. fisheries and Indigenous rights organizations, and the province say they are pleased the Nova Scotia government has rejected a plan by Pictou's Northern Pulp plant to pipe treated effluent into the Northumberland Strait between Nova Scotia and P.E.I.
Nova Scotia had until Tuesday to decide whether or not to approve Northern Pulp's proposal for a new treatment facility that would pump up to 85 million litres of treated effluent daily into the strait. On Tuesday, the Nova Scotia environment minister asked the mill to submit an environmental assessment report within two years.
"We've pointed out a number of inaccuracies the last few years through this process, and as it turns out the minister agrees with those inaccuracies," said Melanie Giffin, a marine biologist and program planner with the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association.
Giffin called the decision "positive" and said her organization hopes its concerns about the marine ecosystem in the Strait and how the mill's effluent may affect the multi-million dollar fishery for lobster, scallops and other fish, will now be addressed.
'There's still obviously that big elephant in the room, being Boat Harbour and the Boat Harbour closure," Giffin said. Boat Harbour is the estuary where Northern Pulp currently pumps its treated effluent, and the Nova Scotia government ordered it shut down by January 2020.
"We still support that closure," she said, noting the PEIFA is not against the mill itsel
'Continue to be strongly opposed'
P.E.I.s' provincial government is pleased with the decision for a new assessment of the plan, Premier Dennis King and Fisheries Minister Jamie Fox said in a written release Tuesday.
"We commend the Nova Scotia environment minister for asking for more science-based information and welcome the caution expressed on this decision," King said in the release.
"There are still many unanswered questions about the short- and long-term impacts on the Northumberland Strait ecosystem," Fox said in the release.
In a written release Tuesday, P.E.I.'s Mi'kmaq leadership said it was "disheartened" the federal government would not do its own environmental assessment of the plant's plan.
"We are happy that this project will require an environmental assessment process," said Lennox Island Chief Darlene Bernard in the release. "As stewards of the environment, we're deeply concerned about the potential harm to the Northumberland Strait marine life this project could have created, lasting for generations."
"We continue to be strongly opposed to this project," said Chief Junior Gould in the release.
"The potential harm of the discharge into the Northumberland Strait could have devastating effects to both the cultural and economically significant fishing industry."
Ottawa won't do impact assessment on Northern Pulp effluent treatment plan
'A federal impact assessment is not the right tool for every type of project,' says federal minister
The future of the Northern Pulp mill is firmly in the hands of Nova Scotia Environment Minister Gordon Wilson.
Wilson is scheduled to release his environmental assessment decision on the Pictou County pulp mill's plan for a new effluent treatment facility at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.
On Monday, it was learned Wilson will have the final word on the matter after federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced he would not designate the project for a federal impact assessment.
"I am very much aware of concerns that have been raised related to the potential for adverse impacts from the project on marine life including a number of important questions raised by federal departments," Wilkinson said in a statement.
"It is my expectation that outstanding questions and information gaps will be answered through the provincial environmental assessment process. Should these issues not be sufficiently dealt with through the provincial process, I remain committed to ensuring that they are thoroughly understood and addressed through federal regulatory processes."
Mill's future
Prior to Monday's announcement, it was expected Wilkinson would make his decision on Friday, three days after Wilson's. The move means there will be no ambiguity around Wilson's ruling on Tuesday and whether it could be superseded by Ottawa.
If Wilson turns down the application, it will likely mean an end to the mill's operation. The provincial Liberals passed the Boat Harbour Act five years ago and it mandates that the mill no longer use the former tidal estuary to treat its effluent after Jan. 31, 2020.
Should Wilson approve the plan, which calls for a new treatment site to be built on the mill's property and treated effluent to then be discharged into the Northumberland Strait via a pipeline, the mill would need an amendment to the Boat Harbour Act to keep operating.
Mill officials have said it would take about two years to complete construction, but that the mill cannot go into hot idle for an extended period of time. Without an extension to continue using Boat Harbour, Northern Pulp cannot continue to operate.
Members of the forestry industry and union officials for mill workers have aggressively lobbied the government to approve the plan and grant an extension to the act, noting that thousands of jobs are at risk should the largest player in the industry go down.
On the other side of the debate are members of Pictou Landing First Nation, fishermen, tourism operators and others in Pictou County who have called for the deadline to be upheld, even if that means an end to the mill. The potential unknowns when it comes to the marine ecosystem, along with closing a painful chapter of environmental racism trump everything else at this point, they say.
Those same groups had called on the federal government to take over the assessment process, something that would have required an additional two years to complete before construction could potentially begin, because they argue the provincial government is in a conflict of interest as both regulator and a lender to the mill.
Federal scientist concerns
In his statement, Wilkinson said even if the province approves the project it would still be subject to and required to satisfy federal rules.
"A federal impact assessment is designed for the largest most complex projects where there is significant environmental risk in areas of federal jurisdiction," he said.
"A federal impact assessment is not the right tool for every type of project. Under CEAA 2012 and the Impact Assessment Act, pulp and paper mills are not designated projects. As such, these types of projects have not undergone federal environmental assessments."
Federal scientists, responding to requests for feedback from the provincial government as part of the public comment period for the environmental assessment focus report, raised significant concerns about the document, calling it lacking and in some cases relying on inaccurate information.
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