Marathon Negotiating Deal Saves NewPage Mill

An 11th hour deal has been reached to reopen the NewPage Port Hawkesbury paper mill in Point Tupper. Premier Darrell Dexter called a rare Saturday night press conference just day after a bid by Pacific West Commercial Corporation to purchase the plant collapsed. Dexter says the new deal with the Vancouver company will mean that the money the provincial government has spent in an effort to reopen the mill should be repaid in as little as 12 years. That includes a $124.5 million funding package that was announced last month and $36.8 million that has been spent to keep the mill in a so-called hot idle state. The mill shut down last September, throwing some 600 people out of work and affecting another 400 forestry contractors. The mill opened in 1962.