November 16, 2018 – Northern Pulp, the embattled Nova Scotia pulp mill, is calling on the public as it attempts to secure more time on a government-imposed deadline for the building of a new effluent drainage pipe.
CTV News reports via the Canadian Press that Kathy Cloutier, a spokesperson for Northern Pulp’s parent company Paper Excellence, says that the mill needs the general public and forestry leaders to publicly announce support for extending the deadline.
The Nova Scotia government has ordered Northern Pulp to get its wastewater out of the lagoons that it is currently using near the Pictou Landing First Nations reserve by January 2020. The mill has a new effluent treatment facility under construction, but the matter of where it will drain into is what has local fishermen and environmental groups concerned.
The mill has been attempting to complete an environmental assessment of the water of Northumberland Strait as an alternative solution, but has been blocked by local fisherman boats protesting the proposed plan. Actor Ellen Page also joined in on the protests this week, tweeting support for The Mill: Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest, a book condemning Northern Pulp’s environmental efforts, by journalist Joan Baxter.
With the protest delays on the strait, Paper Excellence has announced that it is unlikely to meet the 2020 deadline.
Cloutier’s comments come after Iain Rankin, who serves as Nova Scotia’s lands and forestry minister, said the government won’t amend the deadline, which gave the mill five years to relocate.
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