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Corporate shell game

Northern Pulp seeks protection from creditors in a BC court — and its largest creditor is its owner, Paper Excellence

July 19, 2020 By Joan Baxter 10 Comments

Northern Pulp — the mill in Pictou County — has gone into hibernation. And Northern Pulp — the company — is “insolvent.” It is one of seven related companies petitioning for creditor protection in the British Columbia Supreme Court, while it seeks “a plan of compromise or arrangement.” The petitioners seeking relief from debt payments, […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: 1057863 B.C. Limited, Asia Pulp and Paper, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bruce Chapman, Canso Chemicals, Catalyst Paper Corporation, Chetwynd Mechanical Pulp Inc., Chronicle Herald, corporate tax haven index, corporate welfare, deforestation, Ed Roste, Eduardo Bolsonaro, Eka Tjipta Widjaja, Euromomey, Euromoney, Forbes, former Premier John Hamm, Globe and Mail, Greenpeace, Hardi Wardhana, Hervey Investment B.V., Howe Sound Pulp and paper, Indonesia, Inter-corporate Ownership index, Jackson Widjaja, Jan Willem van Gelder, MacKenzie Pulp Inc., Mattell, Meadow Lake Mechanical Pulp, Mongabay, Netherlands, Northern Pulp, Northern pulp creditor protection, Northern Pulp loans, Northern Pulp Mill, Northern Resources Nova Scotia Corporation, Northern Timber, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence B.V., Paper Excellence Canada Holdings Corporation, Pedro Chang, Petra Spaargaren, Prince Albert Pulp Inc., Reuters, Sinar Mas Group, Singapore, Skoomkumchuck Pulp Inc., Sugiarto Kardiman, Supreme Court of British Columbia, tax havens, Tax Justice Network, Tejuh Widjaja, Unifor

Nova Scotia government doles out $10 million more for Northern Pulp

The effluent pipeline may have been turned off but the provincial money pipeline continues to flow 

May 12, 2020 By Joan Baxter

The Nova Scotian government will be giving Paper Excellence, the parent company of Northern Pulp and a corporation linked to the multi-billionaire Widjaja family of Indonesia, still more millions. This time, the amount is $10 million. Northern Pulp still owes the province $85 million from previous loans. And the company still owes $65 million on...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: A’se’K, Boar Harbour, Boat Harbour remediation project, Bruce Chapman, Environmental Racism, Ken Swain, Kristina Shannon, Marla MacInnis, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Paper Excellence, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Stephen McNeil

John Hamm has left the Northern Pulp ship

February 5, 2020 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

Former Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm has left the boards of the Northern Pulp family of companies. His departure was noticed today by Stacey Rudderham, who contacted the Halifax Examiner with the news. Rudderham has followed the Northern Pulp story closely for her blog “One Not So Bored Housewife,” and in a film she made about Boat […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Boat Harbor, Bruce Chapman, John Hamm, Northern Pulp, Stacey Rudderham

Northern Pulp’s environmental documents: missing mercury, a pulp mill that never was, and oodles of contradictions

March 5, 2019 By Joan Baxter 9 Comments

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 on February 7, 2019, when it registered its “Replacement Effluent Treatment […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Bell Bay Tasmania, Boat Harbour, Bruce Chapman, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), Canso Chemicals, Chief Andrea Paul, Clean the Mill Group, Dave Gunning, Dillon Consulting, dioxins and furans, Dr. John Krawczyk, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Gary Porter, Greg Egilsson, Gulf NS Herring Federation, Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA), Jamie Simpson, Kathy Cloutier, KSH Consulting, mercury, Mi’kmaq Conservation Group, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Northern Pulp environmental assessment, Nova Scotia Environment, oxygen delignification system, Paper Excellence Canada, Pictou Harbour, Pictou Landing, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Point D, Rachel Boomer, Terri Fraser, Toxikos

John Hamm says he has no regrets about signing pulp mill lease

February 10, 2019 By Jennifer Henderson

Former premier and long-time Northern Pulp Nova Scotia director John Hamm says he has no regrets about his 2002 decision to sign a 25-year lease agreement with a previous owner of the Pictou County mill when his Progressive Conservatives were in power. The Examiner tagged Hamm for a brief conversation Friday night following his appearance...

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Filed Under: Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Boat Harbor, Bruce Chapman, Choong Wei Tan, former Premier John Hamm, John Savage government, Minister Gerald O’Malley, Minister Ron Russell, Neenah Paper, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp Nova Scotia (NPNS), Northern Resources Nova Scotia Corporation, Paper Excellence Canada, Terri Fraser

“Everything won’t stink so bad”

The countdown to Boat Harbour closure begins

February 1, 2019 By Joan Baxter 7 Comments

The children of Pictou Landing First Nation didn’t mince words when they addressed the standing-room-only audience that had gathered in their school gymnasium on January 31, 2019 to mark the start of the one-year countdown to the legislated closure of Boat Harbour. They “hate” Boat Harbour. It makes them “sad.” And “it stinks.” Once the […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, Boat Harbour, Boat Harbour Act, Boat Harbour remediation project, Bruce Chapman, Chief Andrea Paul, former Premier John Hamm, Kathy Cloutier, McInnes Cooper, Mi’kmaq of Pictou Landing, Michelle Francis-Denny, Northern Pulp, Paper Excellence Canada, Premier Stephen McNeil

Two guys talking smack at the end of the bar really isn’t stadium news

Morning File, Thursday, December 6, 2018

December 6, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 9 Comments

News 1. Northern Pulp I reported yesterday: Northern Pulp Mill is suing seven named and “various other” unnamed fishermen who the company says have blockaded survey boats from conducting the surveys necessary to route a pipe from the mill into the Northumberland Strait. Named as defendants are Edwin Donald Shaw, Allan Francis MacCarthy, Chad MacCarthy, […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Aaron Beswick, Bruce Chapman, CFL Stadium PR, Dave Reage, Glen Bannon, Halifax Transit management, Mary Campbell, Mike Spicer, Nathan Colman, Northern Pulp, November weather, Sydney Harbor Investment Partners (SHIP), Tom Cochrane

Northern Pulp Mill sues fishermen

December 5, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 5 Comments

Northern Pulp Mill is suing seven named and “various other” unnamed fishermen who the company says have blockaded survey boats from conducting the surveys necessary to route a pipe from the mill into the Northumberland Strait. Named as defendants are Edwin Donald Shaw, Allan Francis MacCarthy, Chad MacCarthy, Daryl Wayne Bowen, Ben Anderson, Paul Scott […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Allan Francis MacCarthy, Ben Anderson, Boat Harbour Act, Bradley Elmer MacDonald, Bruce Chapman, Chad MacCarthy, Colin Toole, Daryl Wayne Bowen, Edward Donald Shaw, Glen Gilbert, Harvey Morrison, Minister Catherine McKenna, NoPipe demonstrations, Northern Pulp Mill, Paul Scott Musick, PEI Premier Wade MacLauchlan, Ryan Baxter

Battle for the Mill

The plan to pipe effluent from the Northern Pulp Mill into the Northumberland Strait is dividing the community of Pictou, pitting neighbour against neighbour and fishermen against mill workers.

March 20, 2018 By Joan Baxter 4 Comments

This is a follow-up to Linda Pannozzo’s investigative articles in The Halifax Examiner detailing the issues around Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment and disposal system: Dirty Dealing Part 1: Northern Pulp mill and the province are set to roll the dice with Boat Harbour’s replacement, but a cleaner alternative exists; Dirty Dealing Part 2: Wading through the quagmire […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Andrea Paul, Asia Pulp and Paper, Boat Harbour, Bruce Chapman, Bruce I. Fleming, Central Nova MP Sean Fraser, Cory Rankin, Deputy Environment Minister Frances Martin, Friends of the Northumberland Strait, Government House leader Alan McIsaac, Joan Baxter, Kathy Cloutier, MLA Colin LaVie, MLA Darlene Compton, MLA Karla MacFarlane, MLA Lenore Zann, MLA Peter Bevan-Baker, MLA Tim Houston, Nicole MacKenzie, Northern Pulp emissions, Paper Excellence Canada, Pictou Landing First Nation, Premier Wade MacLauchlan, Ron Heighton, Ryan Fleury, Sinar Mas Group, Terri Fraser

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Brian Borcherdt. Photo: Anna Edwards-Borcherdt

Brian Borcherdt came of age in Yarmouth in the 1990s. When he arrived in Halifax, the city’s famous music scene was already waning, and worse, the music he made was rejected by the cool kids anyway. After decades away from Nova Scotia, he and his young family have settled in the Annapolis Valley, where he’ll zoom in to chat with Tara about his band Holy Fuck’s endlessly delayed tour, creating the Dependent Music collective, and the freedom and excitement of the improvised music he’s making now. Plus: Bringing events back in 2021.

The Tideline is advertising-free and subscriber-supported. It’s also a very good deal at just $5 a month. Click here to support The Tideline.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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