Closures of Fortress Pulp Mill and Lauzon Sawmill in Thurso, QuebecTwo major forestry closures have hit the town of Thurso, Quebec, which is located on the Ottawa River about 45 km east of Gatineau. The Fortress Pulp Mill initially laid off 273 of its 323 workers in early October 2019 while it sought a buyer. On December 12, 2019, the company announced it had been unable to find a buyer and would permanently close the mill. The closure also affects 76 forestry producers in the Outaouais and Laurentides who are awaiting payment for the equivalent of $800,000, according to forestry producers' associations in the region. The producers report that Fortress Global stopped paying for wood deliveries in October. The permanent closure of Fortress thus affects approximately 1,000 workers working in various fields.
The pulp mill was originally acquired by Fortress Cellulose Spécialisée in 2010 at a cost of $3 million. The factory was then closed and converted to produce dissolving pulp, used for the manufacture of textiles and other products. The conversion included the addition of a 24-megawatt cogeneration plant. The Government of Quebec participated in financing this project with a $102 million loan in 2010, out of a total projected cost of $175 million. Its final cost reached $300 million. In December 2014 the Quebec government agreed to give Fortress until 2026 to start paying back the loan, which was originally supposed to come due on April 30, 2020. Last September, the Legault government made a $5 million loan in the name of helping the company "maintain the activities of its Thurso factory and the 323 jobs associated with it." Then, on October 8, it granted another loan of $8 million to allow "the establishment of a process to find a strategic investor for its Thurso plant." It has yet to hold the company to account for the $800,000 it owes to the 76 forestry producers. On December 13, 2019, Fortress Global Enterprises Inc. announced that its "senior secured lenders" would be commencing "restructuring proceedings in respect of the Company and certain of its material subsidiaries under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA)." Investissement Québec is listed on the CCAA filing as a co-applicant/secured creditor, with Fiera Private Debt. Inc. listed as the other co-applicant/secured creditor. Fortress Global Enterprises, three of its subsidiaries and one numbered Quebec company are listed as debtors. Workers in other sectors such as steel have previously exposed the fraud that typifies restructuring under CCAA "insolvency protection," where companies operating in Canada act in service of global empires, and the workers are treated as a disposable force. Thus, the situation facing workers is sorting out how to block these companies from being able to carry out their wrecking. The Outaouais region was built on forestry and related industries such as pulp, paper and lumber. This production was initially intended to meet the needs for the British for the construction of their marine fleet, and later, of U.S. newspapers for newsprint. In other words, from the start, the development of this industry was not based on a coordinated national effort to have a self-reliant economy, but was and remains dependent on foreign investors and markets and meeting the needs of financial oligarchs, especially those based in the U.S. However, market needs have changed significantly, such as newsprint being replaced with online publications. The precarious situation in this sector is exacerbated by the anti-social offensive and neo-liberal agreements such as the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement which concentrates decision-making in the hands of the financial oligarchs within the framework of a United States of North American Monopolies. Such arrangements permit investors to easily abscond with the social wealth produced by the workers, while abdicating their social responsibilities to the workers and their communities. As Workers' Forum explained in 2019 regarding similar closures confronting BC forestry workers and their communities. "The aggressive trade agenda of the U.S. imperialists in collusion with big companies in Canada are using U.S. softwood lumber tariffs to raise prices and profits in the U.S. and drive smaller competitors out of business. The situation in Canada has worsened with the big companies using the social wealth workers produce to eliminate workers through technological change and to expand forestry operations in the United States."[1]
It not possible to resolve the crisis in the forestry and other resource sectors without taking a step back and adopting a holistic approach to review the direction of the economy, that takes into account the working conditions of workers, the requirements of protection of the natural environment and respect for the hereditary rights of the Indigenous peoples. This can only be done with the contribution of all concerned, in particular that of the producers themselves. The situation facing working people across the country is the need to renew the social, political and economic arrangements and put an end to their marginalization. Note
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Also in October
2019, the Lauzon sawmill announced that it was going out of business,
laying off 100 workers. The closure of this sawmill, which produces
hardwood flooring, also has a direct impact on 165 forestry workers who
supply wood to the sawmill.
The calls from
some quarters that the government should be proactive, rather than
intervening only when the damage is done, will not be able to resolve
this situation in favour of the workers. The anachronistic democratic
institutions do not permit working people to have any say in the
direction of the economy. Neo-liberal governments act in the service of
private interests by providing companies with "financial assistance"
and other pay-the-rich schemes. When these companies brutally impose
closures, as they have done in the case of Lowe's and many others, such
governments claim they can do nothing on the pretext that these are
private business decisions over which they have no control.