Northern Pulp gets an extra year to submit environmental assessment report

Nova Scotia's environment minister has given officials with Northern Pulp more time to complete the company's environmental assessment application for a proposed new effluent treatment facility.

Tim Halman signed off on a one-year extension for the beleaguered mill last week following a request from the company.

"An extension is well within the department and minister's authority to approve," Environment Department spokesperson Kristin Matthews said in a statement to CBC News.

Matthews said it's the department's role to review the environmental assessment when it's completed, while it's the company that decides the timing of a proposed project.

Halman's department released the final terms of reference for Northern Pulp's preparation of its environmental assessment report on March 14, 2022, triggering a two-year deadlinethat would have required mill officials to complete the work this week.

• Pictou Landing chief 'shocked' by look of Boat Harbour months after mill shutdown

The extension means the new submission deadline is March 14, 2025.

The mill in Abercrombie, Pictou County, ceased operations in early 2020 after failing to secure approval from the province on plans for a new effluent treatment facility. Until that point, the mill releasedeffluent into nearby Boat Harbour to be treated.

Legislation passed by the former Liberal government with all-party support in 2015, however, called for effluent to stop flowing into the former tidal estuary within five years.

A brief history of Boat Harbour and Northern Pulp

5 years ago

Duration 6:29

This timeline covers major events from the 1960s to 2019. It begins with the construction of the pulp mill at Abercrombie Point to Premier Stephen McNeil's 2019 announcement that the Boat Harbour effluent treatment site would close.

The company subsequently entered creditor protection proceedings. Documents filed as part of that process late last year stated that mill officials had paused work on theenvironmental assessment process.

It's anticipated that the creditor protection proceedings will concludelater this year and looming in the background is a $450-million lawsuit the company filed against the provincial government in 2021 seeking damages and lost profits for the premature end to its lease on Boat Harbour.

The company was also seeking a judicial review of the terms of reference Halman set for the environmental assessment.

Like the lawsuit, the pursuit of a judicial review was paused when the two sides were forced into court-ordered, non-binding mediation in 2022. Recent creditor protection proceedings documents said mediation could be nearing an end, which could see the renewal of the legal matters.

A spokesperson for the company did not respond to a request for comment.