Waiting for a phoenix to emerge from the ashes
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the last story in staff reporter John DeMont’s series on the fallout from the closure of the Bowater mill in Queens County.
Under normal circumstances, when summer arrives in Queens County, the coffee drinkers inside Liverpool’s sole Tim Hortons are talking about getting out to the cottage.
The guys elbowing to the bar at the Captain Barss pub would be contemplating what lures to use to catch bass in the Mersey River.
The folks stopping to yak in the Sobeys, Superstore and Home Hardware parking lots —where much of the daily small-town socializing takes place — would be debating how this year’s Privateer Days festival (starting Thursday) is likely to stack up against those of yo re.
Last week, though, Corey Hartlen’s mind was filled with less-tranquil thoughts.
The owner of a two-bay garage in Brooklyn was thinking about how quiet it was now that the drone of the paper mill down the road had gone silent and the 18-wheelers carrying paper no longer thundered by his door.
The 35-year-old was also thinking about how odd it is to no longer see the columns of steam billowing from the mill’s stacks. The steam was a comforting sight that welcomed him home whenever he had been away for too long.
Mostly, the married father of two young children was thinking about what the mill’s closure will mean to his business, which was already down some 40 per cent from this time last year.
“Our goal was to expand into something bigger," he said.
“Now we will just have to put it on the back burner while we see what is going to happen."
Hartlen’s shoulders sag a bit when he says this. Like everyone in Queens County, he’s still shocked that Resolute Forest Products of Montreal shut the Bowater Mersey mill in Brooklyn within six months of receiving a government rescue package.
There’s anger toward the local mill officials who delivered the bad news. And even some simmering resentment directed at Resolute’s home province of Quebec, where some think their jobs have gone.
In Queens County, tough times are undeniably ahead.
Liverpool’s downtown already has its share of For Sale, For Rent and Closed for Business signs.
Even before the mill closure, real estate agents said it was hard to find a buyer for 200-year-old houses going for about half what they would fetch in a Halifax suburb.
Now, word is that the mill’s closure reduces Liverpool’s tax base by $800,000 a year.
Every couple of days, a local pipefitter, electrician or plumber who used to work at the mill makes the agonizing decision to begin shuttling back and forth to a job in the Alberta oilsands.
“The crystal ball at this point is not very clear," said David Chandler, a retired Bowater Mersey executive and longtime community volunteer.
But ask around and it is also easy to discover that beneath the shock, some people feel a sense of relief. They say it was just a matter of time until the mill closed, and its slow death was sucking the life out of the workers and their families.
“Queens County people do things differently," said Christopher Clarke, an Englishman who worked his way up the Bowater Mersey organization and later became mayor of Liverpool.
“Other places wait for government to come forward to help.
We tend to do things ourselves."
Elizabeth Mitton, who works behind the receptionist’s desk at Hartlen’s garage, is a case in point. Her husband Reid had been a papermaker at the mill for 27 years when it shut. But they always knew this day was coming.
So Reid worked nights and weekends doing diving work at a local aquaculture farm to earn extra money.
A month ago, they sold the home where they had lived with their three children and bought a smaller one with lower mortgage payments.
“He’s just not willing to go out west," Elizabeth said. “He’ll find something."
Just what that something will be is a matter of intense debate in Queens County. The province has appointed Ron Smith, a former chief financial officer at Emera — and a Yarmouth native — to chart a way forward for the area.
Nobody thinks the plant will ever reopen. But people say that surely someone, somewhere, will do something with the vast tracts of woodland and the Brooklyn power plant.
There’s even rampant speculation that Irving Shipbuilding could use the mill’s docks in its naval warship work.
“I’m confident that a phoenix will somehow emerge from the ashes," Clarke said.
History, after all, is in the place’s favour. The people of Liverpool were tough and enterprising enough to make their town a privateering centre during the War of 1812.
Later, it was a fishing and shipbuilding hub. In the 1920s, Liverpool sea captains ran booze into Prohibition America. In 1929, the Mersey pulp and paper mill arrived. The jobs brought workers from across North America and a level of prosperity to Queens County.
At the mill’s peak — before the paper industry began its precipitous slide in the late 1990s — some 1,000 people worked there, or in the company’s woodlands.
“I spent my life at that company," Atwood Dexter, 83, said last week as he stood in Brooklyn looking at his old place of employment.
“They were great years."
Now, the people of Queens County just want them back again.
End of an Era, Beginning of change
Submitted by Quiet Comment on June 25, 2012 - 5:26am.
This is going to be a major shake up of life in the area. Hopefully some one will come mup with some ideas to help make the situation better.
Tmes are changing....paper
Submitted by GNick on June 25, 2012 - 5:35am.
Tmes are changing....paper mills and the such are going out. I imagine lots of people like myself...read newspapers, magazines online now. Along with reading books on Kobo instead of buying them. Its cheaper and don't even up with the clutter.
Lessons learned?
Submitted by vulcan09 on June 25, 2012 - 8:01am.
My thoughts go out for those impacted.
However:
Are there not are lessons to be learned here, by governments. Regardless of how much money you throw around, in business you can't go against the market forces. I suspect NS has enough information from past ventures to know that.
As to the "Resolute" decision to employ folks back home, I recall the words of a company spokesperson a few years back when closing down in Cape Breton. The owner said something like "when times are tough, you shrink your business back to where you are from, not to keep jobs in other locations." Again, are there lessons to be learned, that can be applied in the future?
Asleep at the switch
Submitted by No problem here... on June 25, 2012 - 9:35am.
Good thing that the provincial bureaucrats do not run a railway. As the train wreck of the century was about to happen in opposite ends of this wanting province, what was the main concern of the bureaucrats? Worry about if it was to be one of them who had to give up their over subsidised salary and perks and shuffle off to Buffalo also better known as New Waterford, or Truro. Which leads me to wonder. Is there anyone in that overstaffed over paid public service that has a handle on anything, except maybe the door handle in order to exit the building at the end of an other wasted day. Then again there is always tomorrow.
Crown land
Submitted by CMII on June 25, 2012 - 9:56am.
We need to make absolutely certain that a foreign company does not come here and purchase the remaining Bowater lands to clear cut them and export the wood. This is an awesome opportunity for the NDP to acquire these lands and keep them for all Nova Scotians to enjoy. Let's let the trees grow and the animals thrive.
Money ?
Submitted by beejay on June 25, 2012 - 12:07pm.
...and where do you expect the money to come from to buy these lands ?
Sure it would be nice, but last time I looked, Nova Scotia was deep in debt. You sound like the householder, who when money runs out, you just borrow more.
Expropriate the assets
Submitted by Suther42 on June 25, 2012 - 10:18am.
NS needs to stand up to these companies who come here and milk us for tax dollars only to leave a few months later. We need to do what Newfoundland & Labrador did under Danny Williams: expropriate the remaining assets and use them to our benefit. Resolute should not be allowed to pick and choose what it wants to sell off and leave us with the garbage! Stand up to these thieves and bullies. Tell them and any other company operating in this province that there will be repercussions if they pull a stunt like this. Get mad, Dexter!
Bowater blues
Submitted by noidrocca on June 25, 2012 - 10:45am.
As I recall, the phoenix only arose from the ashes AFTER 500 YEARS!!!! So, good luck with that, as they say... Is this the best consolation the rich and their media cronies have to offer the workers who actually physically produce the wealth of Nova Scotia?
Changing times
Submitted by law on June 25, 2012 - 10:46am.
As happened with Sydney Steel, as happened with the East Coast Fisheries, as happened to the rail lines and now as happened to the Forest industry. Times change, so must those that are employed in the industry of the day that has seem better times.
Now for the land...this belongs to the province who has poured our tax dollars over the decades into these same industries (Bowater) who now are obsolete.
Buchanan/Mulroney regime CONservative Gov.
Submitted by Ocean Beach on June 25, 2012 - 12:23pm.
IMO- In My Opinion - Under CONservative gov. rule history shows Nova Scotia's Forestry Industry with NS Crown Lands has been shady business. > > NOW Comes The heartache, the ruined lives, families falling apart because of CONS Gov. greasing friends & families & their palms. > > This Mills closure means a huge change and with that comes Liverpools citizens want to understand that ASAP and need to change. If it means You'all can acquire employment in Alberta than take those good paying jobs in Alberta. > > Since the election of John Buchannon and arrainging Mulroney to be elected out of N.S, Nova Scotia's been a cesspool of coruption. Dexter did all he could, trired hard to try to save this Mill & workers jobs. "Go West, Nova Scotia is nothing anymore with Emera-NS Power being a large cause of it. Buchanan & friends idea, privitize the provincial power company and the investor-shareholders are rolling in money - profits thanks to fellow business associates of the Buchanan/Mulroney regime.
FYI
Submitted by leigh87 on June 25, 2012 - 12:45pm.
There is no Home Depot in Liverpool... Home Hardware yes, Home Depot no.
Thank you!
Submitted by Rick Conrad on June 25, 2012 - 5:02pm.
Hi there and thanks very much for the correction.
That has been fixed in the story.
Rick Conrad
Editor, thechronicleherald.ca
Take a stand
Submitted by CMII on June 25, 2012 - 12:59pm.
Premier Dexter, are you listening to us? We need you to stand up and take back these lands. Much of it was given to the Mersey plant for free back in the day. They have been raping it for decades and the time has finally come to save the remaining old growth lands and allow the clear cuts time (80+ years) to regrow. You fly over the province on a regular basis so you know all too well how bad it is out there. The trees are gone, the animals are dead, the lakes are acidic and the top soil has eroded.
Please take a stand here and do what is right for the future generations of Nova Scotians.
keep the land
Submitted by lpearse on June 25, 2012 - 3:14pm.
The NDP should expropriate the land
Exactly
Submitted by Bone Peeler on June 25, 2012 - 4:44pm.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Those corporate welfare handouts that every party has handed over at some point would have been much better invested in trying to diversify the local economy.
We need to stop corporate welfare in employers who are only here for quick handouts. Invest in people with roots in the community - they will likely want to be there through thick and thin.
In the next election do your research and vote for who takes a stand against this kind of nonsense.