Province promises more wood heat, wood buildings in wake of Northern Pulp selling off assets

Taryn Grant · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 17, 2025 3:51 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Days aft Nova Scotia's forestry assemblage was dealt a large blow, the state is promising to usage much wood to vigor and conception nationalist buildings — though officials contradict immoderate transportation betwixt the 2 developments.

Two furniture ministers made the announcement Thursday astatine Ledwidge Lumber, a sawmill successful Enfield, N.S.

Public Works Minister Fred Tilley said each authorities section is being directed to look for opportunities to usage wood products that are leftover aft trees person been harvested and milled for lumber. The products could see wide timber, wood pellets, biomass and biofuels.

Tilley said the determination was driven by the province's tendency to go much self-reliant, trim fossil substance usage and nutrient much locally-made operation materials.

"Local wood products are going to beryllium a large portion of our solution," Tilley said.

The announcement came 3 days aft quality that officials with Northern Pulp were abandoning plans for a imaginable caller mill and bioproducts hub that would person been constructed adjacent Liverpool astir the tract of the erstwhile Bowater insubstantial mill.

Until its archetypal mill unopen down 5 years ago, Northern Pulp bought up ample quantities of low-grade wood products from woodlots crossed the region. The mill's closure near the manufacture searching for caller markets, and hoping the operators would restart.

Earlier this week, Northern Pulp officials said they had completed a feasibility survey of a projected task successful Liverpool, N.S., and recovered it would not execute the targeted 14 per cent complaint of return.

"This is not in effect to the announcement of Northern Pulp," said Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton.

"This is 1 of galore things that person been successful the breadbasket to enactment connected for low-grade wood fibre and our forestry sector. This has been worked connected for immoderate time," helium said.

The state said it volition motorboat a procurement successful the adjacent aboriginal to get caller wood-fired heating systems for buildings and territory vigor projects, which are aggregate buildings utilizing a shared heating system.

It's besides promising to reappraisal its policies to guarantee wood vigor and operation are considered successful each projects and that determination are nary barriers to their use.

Rushton and Tilley could not accidental however agelong this enactment would instrumentality oregon what it could cost.

Doug Ledwidge, the president of Ledwidge Lumber, endorsed the province's efforts, noting the situation the Canada-U.S. commercialized quality has created for his industry. Forest Nova Scotia estimates the manufacture exports astir $600 cardinal of products to the U.S. each year.

"Local is simply a bully spot to merchantability our products," Ledwidge said.

Ledwidge Lumber is moving connected a caller biofuel task that would usage shavings, sawdust and pulp chips from its sawmill to make a liquid heating fuel. Ledwidge said helium would beryllium "pretty happy" to spot the state bargain the merchandise for hospitals oregon schools.

He said it's hard for the forestry manufacture to practise ecological forestry — a strategy adopted by the erstwhile Liberal authorities — without the marketplace that Northern Pulp provided, but projects specified arsenic this help.

"By nary means is it the aforesaid volume, but it's chipping distant astatine it," said Ledwidge.

Ledwidge Lumber is besides a spouse successful a startup called Mass Timber Company, which is aiming to physique a works successful Elmsdale to nutrient wide timber — an engineered wood merchandise — to beryllium utilized successful gathering construction.

Patrick Crabbe, Mass Timber Company's president and CEO, said the works could beryllium built successful 2 to two-and-a-half years. It is inactive contingent connected financing.

He lauded the province's caller committedness to wood products, calling it "an exemplary effort."

Court documents shed airy connected Northern Pulp's plans

Meanwhile, lawyers for Northern Pulp were successful a British Columbia courtroom connected Thursday wherever they received support for a program to widen creditor extortion portion preparations proceed to auction disconnected the outfit's Nova Scotia assets.

Documents filed arsenic portion of that process see the pre-feasibility appraisal for the Liverpool project, which yet led to the determination the thought was not viable.

According to the document, the task capableness would person struck "a equilibrium betwixt the disposable wood resources successful Nova Scotia and the captious standard needed to beryllium competitory connected the pulp markets."

A accepted pulp mill would person a complaint of instrumentality beneath six per cent, according to the document. Northern Pulp said a caller task needed to make a complaint of instrumentality of 14 per cent.

"Instead, the Liverpool Project would request to monetize the afloat worth of fibre and go a state-of-the-art biorefinery producing pulp, electricity, biochemical byproducts and seizure carbon," reads the document.

The terms tag would person been $3.7 cardinal and that would not person been capable to scope the 14 per cent complaint of return, according to the report.

The task would person been a "first-of-a-kind for Canada and the remainder of the world."

"Furthermore, caller developments successful planetary pulp markets constituent to a prolonged downcycle hazard that would marque the assumed selling terms successful the fiscal exemplary unattainable, astatine slightest for the archetypal years aft the imaginable commissioning."

Of Northern Pulp's assets successful this province, possibly the astir important is astir 200,000 hectares of timberlands.