Frasers to close ??

Rumours from street indicate that representatives from Hydro Quebec paid a visit to the Frasers mill in Edmunston. They have a biomass power generator that provides steam and some electricity to the pulp and paper mill. The rest they sell to NB Power. Apparently this makes the company viable and able to stay open.

http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/617746

The visit was apparently to inform them that HQ will no longer need the power generated from the biomass plant. Does that mean the plant will close?

Other information from another source, indicates that trucking contracts for material related to the biomass plant will be terminated on April 1. No concrete sources for this information at this point, but I'll keep my ears open.

On a side note, even if the rumours are just heresay, apparently the NB Government already subsidizes these facilities, and Irving to the tune of several million dollars per year.

http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/abc/Local/NB/ContentPosting?isfa=1&feedname=CBC_LOCALNEWS&date=true&newsitemid=nb-nb-paper-mill-energy-subsidy-1055

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2008/11/13/nb-forestry-fund.html

So the big savings for industry might be there if the sale goes through, but it won't even be as much as the government pundits claim, because they already subsidize them now anyway. I wonder did they include that in the NERA calculations? I doubt it.

In fact, if you take away the subsidies, and add the possible large Quebec Government induced rate increase that I blogged about earlier, I wonder if there will even be any savings for industrial after the first couple of years. And then their rates will be back to where NB Power rates would have been, plus subject to large increases year after year after that.
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