Idled Thorold paper mill ready for wrecking ball
Georgia Pacific demolition no surprise to former worker
The news of Georgia Pacific’s plans to demolish its shuttered Thorold paper plant comes as no surprise to Andy Stephens.
Stephens, who was union president at the Thorold South plant, said he and other employees saw “the writing on the wall” a few years ago.
Early in 2014, company officials “said they were going to mothball” the mill, said Stephens, implying there was a possibility of resuming operations at some time in the future.
“But they took all the computers, which told us they were going to shut down.”
The official term used at the time was “idled,” said Stephens, who began his 30-year career at the mill in 1983 and retired in May 2013.
“We knew then they had about $10 million worth of work to do on one paper machine,” at the Thorold plant, he said.
“An old mill like that becomes a money pit. At the same time, they bought a newer, faster plant in the U.S. They would take this part out; they would take that part out,” he said, adding that pieces of machinery from the Thorold mill were dismantled to use in Georgia Pacific’s American factories, now numbering 30 across the U.S.
Within three years, Stephens said, six of the seven Canadian GP plants were converted from manufacturing operations to mere storage warehouses for products shipped between U.S. branches.
Production halted at GP plants in Surrey, B.C.; Edmonton; Winnipeg; Calgary; Montreal and a mill in Quebec that made “drywall mud,” said Stephens.
“They made them all warehouses. We were the last mill really running in Canada.”
GP executives in Atlanta decided to change the mandate in Thorold from strictly manufacturing paper for drywall — which it had always done — to making rolls for toilet paper and paper towels; money-makers in the numerous American factories.
Stephens said that switch, plus the fact that no celebrations were held to recognize the plant’s 100th anniversary in 2015, led some employees to suspect the days of the Thorold plant were numbered. “We knew something was up.” The Allanburg Road plant started out as Beaver Wood Fibre Co. in 1915, eventually changing its name to Georgia Pacific.
In its heyday, the Thorold mill operated with employees numbering from 300 to 350, Stephens said.
“At one time, everything was manual.”
In the late 1990s, the plant became more automated, he recalled.
He said GP executives cited lower costs from competitors as their main reason for Thorold’s shutdown.
Even maintaining the plant’s idle status has been costly, according to Atlanta officials, incurring expenses for security, utilities and heating to prevent pipes from freezing.
Delsan AIM, a Montreal-based company, is slated to decommission the plant “in an environmentally sound manner.”
The closure will leave the Thorold with $75,000 less in its municipal coffers, said acting city administrator Manoj Dilwaria, which could translate into a tax hike for Thorold taxpayers, though he said staff is working to prevent a major increase.
“We’re looking at other sources so the net impact to the taxpayer is minimized.”