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.
