Premier Kathy Dunderdale said the government of Newfoundland and Labrador will lend Kruger’s Corner Brook Pulp and Paper $110 million.
Premier Kathy Dunderdale said the government of Newfoundland and Labrador will lend Kruger’s Corner Brook Pulp and Paper $110 million.
It had been revealed months ago that the provincial government had allotted $90 million in this year’s budget for a loan to the province’s only remaining pulp and paper mill. More recently, provincial officials have stated the loan was always planned to be $110 million. According to a story in The Telegram newspaper on Oct. 10, outgoing Natural Resources Minister Tom Marshall said: “The amount of the loan is $110 million. They only anticipated drawing down 90 this particular year, so all we put in our budget this year was 90, but we never said it was a $90-million loan.”
Premier Dunderdale said a formal announcement about the loan is forthcoming, but the government wanted to wait until Kruger, the parent company of Corner Brook Pulp & Paper, had completed negotiations with the Corner Brook unions.
The Telegram reports Dunderdale as saying: “We didn’t want to be in a position where we were putting undue pressure on the unions in terms of their discussion with Corner Brook Pulp and Paper. It’s a great plan. It’s not a giveaway. It’s a loan that’s guaranteed by the generation asset that’s of value to the people of the province, so it’s a good piece of work and we’re happy to talk about it finally.”
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