The paper mill sits downtown on a prime spot overlooking the beautiful Baie des Chaleurs. It has been there since the Depression and is so much a part of the town that residents get their water supply through the facility's pipe.
For decades, workers went into the mill straight out of school, lured by high wages and limited local opportunities otherwise. Almost everyone has worked there or has a relative who did. It's been “a member of the family,” many residents say, as long as Dalhousie can remember.
But that relationship is about to end. The newly merged company AbitibiBowater plans to shut the mill next month, putting several hundred people out of work and creating fears of a domino effect that has some wondering what will be left for this community of about 3,700.
“Something should be done before it gets to this situation,” said Jerry Vienneau, who worked 28 years at the mill but is now on sick leave. “The economy was never diversified before this happened. It was, but never seriously. Why does it have to be a crisis before anything happens?”
Ottawa says funding is coming to help ease the transition, and the provincial government this week announced $330,000 in assistance.
But problems in the provincial forestry industry go well beyond Dalhousie. At last count, only 16 of the 61 mills in New Brunswick were operating at full capacity. According to one estimate, the forestry sector in this province has shed one-quarter of its 20,000 jobs in the past few years.
Among the mills closed recently was a previously idled Miramichi facility owned by the Finnish company UMP-Kymmene, whose decision put 600 people out of work this week. Only days later, angering its former workers, the company announced plans to invest $1.7-billion in overseas mills fed by the rich forests of Russia.
The provincial government had offered subsidies to both AbitibiBowater and UMP-Kymmene, but in both cases they were deemed insufficient to save the facilities. And analysts say that steep energy costs, shrinking demand for newsprint and the high Canadian dollar mean the situation is likely to get worse.
Dalhousie resident Dan Comeau, a single father who returned to his hometown in 2002 after 17 years away, believes the writing is on the wall and that New Brunswick needs to consider a complete rethink of its rural economy.
“I think the whole province could make a statement by going green. If we have to shut down all the plants and lose some union jobs, then shut them down,” he said. “I think you wouldn't be hearing half the commotion if these weren't union jobs, if it was just Joe Schmo.”
The mill in Dalhousie was one of a half dozen across Canada affected by last month's decision by AbitibiBowater, which said “these facilities are not generating positive cash flows and are not expected to do so in the foreseeable future.”
The decision was announced late last month at the close of markets in New York and Toronto, meaning that many Dalhousie mill workers heard about it on the evening news.
“It wouldn't have been unexpected if we had a temporary shutdown,” said town administrator Christy Arseneau, who had summer jobs at the mill. “The complete shutdown and dismantling of the facilities, that I think was unexpected.”
A concern is that, after 2008, the community won't be able to rely on the $2-million in taxes paid locally by the mill, which accounts for nearly one-third of Dalhousie's budget. And as other problems loom, there will be less wealth circulating to support local businesses and real-estate values are expected to take a hit.
Sonny Perry, who worked at the mill for more than 30 years, called it “the heart” of the town. “If you take that mill out of Dalhousie the town will die,” he said.
