N.B. starts public review of Irving mill air approval

The New Brunswick government has started a 180-day public participation process on renewing the Class 1 air quality approval for Irving Pulp and Paper’s Reversing Falls mill in Saint John, the Department of Environment and Local Government said Thursday.

The mill’s current approval expires on May 31, 2027. The 180-day window puts the end of the public process in the spring of 2027, close to that expiry date.

The department said the complex produces about 1,000 tonnes a day of bleached kraft pulp from hardwood and softwood, and that a tissue mill on the site produces about 200 tonnes of tissue a day.

Class 1 major industries must comply with the province’s Air Quality Regulation under the Clean Air Act and operate under the terms and conditions set out in their approval to operate, the department said.

For Saint John residents, the process is the formal point at which the public can see and comment on the conditions attached to one of the city’s largest industrial emitters. The province directs people to its pages on air quality operating approvals for industrial facilities and on public participation in air quality approvals.

The release named Vicky Lutes of the department’s communications office as the media contact. The province did not say in the release whether any conditions of the approval are expected to change.

Source: Government of New Brunswick news release, Nov. 12, 2026.

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