“Well I guess the disappointment is that they certainly haven’t performed to what they said they would do,” -- Forest's Minister Rich Coleman expressing frustration at the pace of events at the Watson Island pulp mill site.
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It would seem that the departure of some key members of the Sun Wave Management group at the moribund Prince Rupert pulp mill continues to add mystery to the plans for mill and mill site on Watson Island.
The Terrace Standard features an on line article in which the Forest Minister Rich Coleman relayed details that neither he nor his staff have heard much from the mysterious managers from Sun Wave since some key managers apparently left the region.
It was suggested that they were still diligently working on their re-opening plans, though there has been little evidence of that locally in the three years that they purchased the remains of the then New Skeena Forest Products.
The Standard reports that one bit of business that they did complete before departing to was to ensure that the B line mill had been dismantled and shipped back to China.
With their back tax breaks now rescinded, the company owes 4 million dollars in back taxes to Prince Rupert and 250,000 dollars to Port Edward, all due to having missing a deadline of pulp production of December 31, 2007.
Minister upset with Chinese over Rupert mill inactivity
Terrace Standard
May 28, 2008
FORESTS MINISTER Rich Coleman has stopped short of directly criticizing the lack of progress a Chinese company is making in re-opening the closed Skeena Cellulose pulp mill in Prince Rupert it bought three years ago.
But he clearly was irritated with the inactivity from Sun Wave Forest Products, a unit of the Chinese-state owned China Paper Group.“Well I guess the disappointment is that they certainly haven’t performed to what they said they would do,” said Coleman last week while visiting Terrace to host one of his roundtable discussions on the future of the forest industry.“
The disappointment is that there isn’t something that integrates the forest sector up here. I guess what it does prove is that you really need deep, deep pockets.”
Sun Wave appeared in 2005, acquiring what was once a linchpin of the northwest forests industry for $3.3 million. The pulp mill at one time employed more than 500 people using fibre from interior and other mills.
Sun Wave’s purchase followed an unsuccessful attempt by former Skeena Cellulose executive Dan Veniez to open both that mill and the former Skeena Cellulose mill in Terrace. And that occurred after Skeena Cellulose shut its doors in 2001 after the newly-elected provincial Liberal government refused to carry on financing it as did the NDP.
Coleman said his top officials haven’t had any contact from Sun Wave for weeks, following the departure of some of its key people working on re-opening plans.
One thing Sun Wave did do was dismantle the smaller of the mills two production lines, called the ‘B’ mill and ship it back to China.
It then sold the wood licences that came with the purchase with a large licence going to Coast Tsimshian Resources, owned by the Lax Kwallam band at Port Simpson on the coast and a smaller in the Hazeltons going to a company controlled by Gitxsan hereditary chiefs.
Sun Wave also received a property tax break from the City of Prince Rupert based on a re-opening schedule it filed with the city.After it assumed control of the location, it said several times it was on the verge of lining up $100 million for start up costs.
As part of the sale, Sun Wave signed agreements with both the District of Port Edward and the City of Prince Rupert that would forgive the back-taxes owed on the land by its previous owners if the company were producing pulp by December 31, 2007. Since that deadline was not met, both municipalities voted to rescind the agreement, which leaves more than $4 million in taxes owed to Prince Rupert and more than $250,000 owed to Port Edward.
Sun Wave officials also met in 2005 with the Terrace Lumber Company, formed by Terrace investors to buy the Skeena Cellulose mill here the same year, but no business relationship ever emerged.
Coleman did note that the province spent more than $30 million in the early part of the decade at the mill site to clean it up after decades of residual pollution.“
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When a company goes bankrupt, it becomes the liability of the crown in one way or another,” he said.As for predictions that Sun Wave would one day re-start the mill, Coleman said he was ever hopeful.“I think they have challenges with fibre of their own [in China] so I would think they will have to look for fibre [here],” he said.
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