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58 people headed back to work as Crofton mill restarts paper machine

Nearly 60 jobs will return with the restart
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A series of events hit the operational process of the Paper Excellence mill at Crofton hard. (Photo by Don Bodger)

Paper Excellence Canada has announced it plans to restart the No. 3 paper machine at its Catalyst paper mill in Crofton, effective in early January 2021, which is good news for some 58 employees who will head back to work after a prolonged layoff.

The restart reflects the strong performance being delivered by Catalyst’s paper sales force and paper operations making both existing printing and writing grades with new food and packaging papers.

The machine was curtailed in the spring of 2020 after an external malware attack, a forest fibre shortage and the COVID-19 pandemic simultaneously impacted paper production as well as global paper demand.

Related: Paper Excellence Canada announces further temporary curtailment at Crofton mill

About 58 jobs will return with the startup of the paper machine at the Crofton facility, bringing its total employee count to about 560.

“We’re very excited to return to full production at Crofton,” Patrick Corriveau, vice president of paper and packaging at Paper Excellence, noted in a statement. “We’re one of only a few companies that’s actually resuming paper production so it’s a testament to the hard work of our sales people and the quality of our products and paper makers.”

Paper Excellence continues to work on production of the new food and packaging papers while remaining committed to its traditional printing and writing grade customers.

The Crofton mill manufactures both pulp and paper products. The mill uses 87 per cent renewable energy and has reduced its carbon emissions by 71 per cent since 1990.

Crofton is one of Canada’s largest pulp and paper mills responsible for injecting almost $3 million into B.C.’s economy daily.