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Mill aims to extend protection
By CARL CLUTCHEY
Friday, February 19, 2010

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The agonizing wait for about 350 Terrace Bay Pulp workers – now almost a year old – is to continue at least for another two months as their employer seeks more time to make financial arrangements to get the plant restarted.
The company is to return to a Toronto courtroom Tuesday to try and extend the period of protection from its creditors to April 30.
An earlier plan to have the mill back into production before the end of this month isn‘t going to happen, the company said this week.
“It was simply impossible to complete all of the required steps to successfully exit (the protection period) by the end of February, and the coming spring thaw makes an earlier startup of the mill impractical,” TBP legal counsel Yves Fricot said in a statement.
“We would be unable to get sufficient wood to the mill to run continuously, and no one wants to start up and then have to take a pause while we wait for wood,” Fricot added.
A startup date has yet to be announced, but some believe logging could begin in the Kenogami forest once the bush dries out, possibly in late spring.
Late last fall, the operation secured from the province a conditional $25-million loan. But it can‘t access that money until it has secured private financing and satisfied Ontario‘s Superior Court that creditors have been paid.
The Buchanan-owned plant was idled last spring due to a plunge in pulp prices, but was profitable until the end of 2008.
Terrace Bay Mayor Mike King said laid-off plant workers and locals are struggling to remain positive.
“It‘s been almost a year now, so it‘s really, really tough,” said King. “It‘s hard on folks.”
King said he continues to believe that “as long we have a wood supply and there are customers, someone will invest.”
Fricot said a potential investor “is completing his due diligence.”
“Overall, while there are a number of important issues that still need to be addressed, we are satisfied with our progress to date and continue our planning for startup,” Fricot said.
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