Sale of Powell River mill site challenged
The attempted sale of the shuttered 100-year-old Powell River pulp mill is proving contentious — the town’s mayor has expressed “shock” at the sales listing and the local Tla’amin First Nation is laying claim to the entire 300-acre waterfront site.
Catalyst Paper, part of Paper Excellence of Richmond, closed the mill permanently last December and, according to Mayor Dave Formosa, subsequently put it on the global real estate market without consulting the city.
In February, Catalyst contracted Colliers of Vancouver to market the site. According to Formosa, several interested parties had earlier expressed interest in keeping the city’s major tax provider a going concern.
In a January statement, Formosa said Paper Excellence, the B.C. government and Renewable Hydrogen Canada had been in discussions about transitioning the mill into a “significant hydrogen and clean fuel production facility.”
He said the site has “excellent infrastructure” to support new industry,” and Catalyst’s decision to list the site was a shock.
“So, I’ve lost my respect for [Catalyst]. This city has given this particular group millions of dollars in tax credits, and to be treated like this, I’m very upset.”
Graham Kissack, Paper Excellence vice-president for corporate communications, issued a statement saying the company engaged Colliers to help manage inquiries around purchasing the Catalyst Paper Tis’kwat mill. “There are multiple qualified buyers interested in the site and we want to handle inquiries in a professional manner through a real estate company. No final decision has been made about the future of the mill site at this point.”
But a First Nation has definite ideas about the past and future of the site, which Catalyst has renamed Tis’kwat in recognition of the Tla’amin First Nation’s historical use of the site as a village.
Tla’amin Nation wrote to Paper Excellence laying claim to the Catalyst Paper mill lands, including an adjacent hydro dam on Powell River.
Correspondence from Tla’amin Chief John Hackett to Paper Excellence in May says that with the closure and planned sale of the mill site, the nation wanted to reaffirm its collective title to Lot 450, including the mill lands.