The President of Unifor Local 10B which represents Domtar employees in Kamloops is still not expecting major changes when the pulp mill is sold to a third party next year.
“I think it is going to be status quo. Our mill is well equipped for going forward. It is well maintained,” Rene Pellerin said. “We have a good customer base and at the end of the day it will be a great buy for the next company that comes in and buys us.”
Concerns around what Domtar’s $3-billion merger with Paper Excellence would mean to the supply of wood fibre in the Thompson-Okanagan is why the Competition Bureau of Canada required the Kamloops mill be sold to a third party.
“I mean you have got Mercer, you have got Canfor, you have got West Fraser. So that is just in B.C., and outside of B.C. I couldn’t tell you,” Pellerin said, when asked if he knew who could buy the Kamloops mill.
“We are going to wait around and see what happens. We are positioned well. Our collective agreement is protected by a successorship clause, which means everything in it is carried forward to the next employer.”
The Kamloops pulp mill has been operating since 1965. It was bought by Weyerhauser in 1971, and again by Domtar in 2007. It will be put up for sale in early 2022, after the merger is official, something which is expected to happen at the end of 2021.
In May, when news of the merger was confirmed, Pellerin told NL News that he expected everything will remain the same once things were official.
“We are just going to carry on until the dust settles,” Pellerin added, noting employees were told of the upcoming sale on Thursday afternoon, before it went public.
“Like I said, the things we have going for us is that the mill is well maintained. We have good customer base, we have a great maintenance workforce, a great operations workforce. I think everything will be smooth for whoever is coming in to buy us.”
Mill will be a good buy: Kamloops Mayor says
The Mayor of Kamloops is also not expecting there to be any issues when the Domtar mill is put up for sale next year.
“This was a good mill when Weyerhaeuser owned it. It was a better mill when Domtar had taken it over and I’m sure Paper Excellence would have done a good job with it,” Ken Christian said. “This is a mill that is safe. It is efficient. It produces a high quality fibre and produces it in very large quantities. So I think it is a good buy.
“I’m not in the market for a pulp mill but I think those that are would look at this as a good investment and hopefully it would be a seamless transition to new ownership.”
Speaking on the NL Morning News, Christian said he did have one ask of the new owners, whoever it might be.
“We have a number of initiatives with Domtar that we have in place as the City and we would expect those to continue with new ownership,” he said.
The Domtar mill is a major employer in Kamloops with about 350 workers. It also pays about $5 million in property taxes each year, making it the largest taxpayer in the city.