Newsprint giant AbitibiBowater Inc. will decide on the fate of a troubled paper mill – a major employer in central Newfoundland – before the end of the year, the provincial government said yesterday.
Provincial Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale discussed the future of the mill in Grand Falls-Windsor with Pierre Rougeau, the company's senior vice-president of North American newsprint operations.
"What I said to Mr. Rougeau was that the people who work at the mill, as well as the communities, are under a tremendous amount of pressure," she said. "They have a right to hear from the company ... and that should happen sooner rather than later."
Earlier this month, unionized employees at the newsprint mill voted 88 per cent against a controversial restructuring plan calling for the elimination of some 170 positions.
