Wet snowy winter allows Corner Brook mill to restart early

Corner Brook Paper Mill to Restart Operations in February

Snow banks are high in Corner Brook, creating ideal conditions for the city’s paper mill to resume operations.

Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited announced on Monday that the mill will restart in February. It closed in November due to drought conditions.

Water levels in the Grand Lake reservoir had reached critical lows. However, a wet winter has allowed the mill to return to production sooner than expected.

“With the snow pack that we have, we see that we’ll get through to the spring period and the runoff so we can sustain operations,” said Darren Pelley, vice-president of special projects with Kruger Inc., the mill’s parent company.

This is positive news for about 400 employees at the mill.

Although paper production has been halted since early November, the company did not lay off workers. Pelley noted they used the downtime for major cleanups and preventative maintenance in hard-to-reach areas.

“It’s very important for us that the employees were still working because certainly we need to ensure our workforce is there and ready for resuming operations,” Pelley said.

Operations will restart gradually, as parts of the mill warm up and systems are reactivated. The company will also monitor water levels at the reservoir closely.

The newsprint industry has faced volatility for decades, prompting Kruger to explore diversification.

Last summer, Kruger announced a $700-million investment plan to modernize the mill. This plan includes shifting focus to lumber production for local sawmills and replacing the log-filled wood yard with wood chips.

Pelley expressed optimism about the future and mentioned that discussions with major stakeholders in the diversification project are currently underway.