The province is protecting the pension benefits and jobs of nearly one thousand retirees and 1,500 Catalyst Paper employees in Crofton, Powell River, and Port Alberni.
Canada-US trade relations have been souring for quite some time and punitive US tariffs could potentially hit 28.5 per cent next month.
This announcement will provide more secure pension entitlements for retirees and workers in the event owners have to sell or close any of the three pulp mills in Crofton, Port Alberni, and Powell River.
BC Premier John Horgan explains what this announcement ultimately means.
Horgan says retirees and workers will be protected from the same fate Sears Canada experienced.
The American owners of Catalyst Paper liquidated their U.S.-based assets and operations in a deal worth 175-million dollars earlier this month.
Horgan says the province can’t stand by and watch Catalyst’s more than one thousand retirees, whose average pension is only $20,000 dollars, be last in line should these tariffs force Catalyst into bankruptcy.
