Northern Pulp has informed the provincial government that it will continue with the environmental process for a proposed effluent treatment plant.
“Since the company has chosen to carry on with the environmental assessment process, we are legally required to continue,” provincial Environment Minister Gordon Wilson said in a news release.
“I want to assure Nova Scotians that, as Premier McNeil has confirmed, the Boat Harbour Act will be enforced as of Jan. 31.”
Brian Baarda, chief executive of Paper Excellence Canada, Northern Pulp’s parent company, made it clear at a Dec. 20 news conference in downtown Halifax that the company was closing the Abercrombie Point mill in Pictou County.
Baarda made the statement a short time after Premier Stephen McNeil had announced that there would be no extension to the Boat Harbour Act, legislating the closure of the mill’s long-used effluent treatment plant by Jan. 31.
“This decision ensures the closure of Northern Pulp, the devastation of Nova Scotia’s forest industry, the loss of 2,700 rural jobs and a significant impact to another 8,300 forestry jobs across Nova Scotia,” Baarda said of the premier’s decision.
It is not immediately clear what the company’s decision to continue with the assessment process means for any potential long-term viability of the mill.
Three days before McNeil’s announcement, Wilson had withheld approval of Northern Pulp’s focus report in support of a proposed effluent treatment facility that would discharge treated effluent into the Northumberland Strait.
As regulator of the project, Wilson said he concluded that more science-based evidence is needed to properly assess the potential risk to air, water, fish and human health.
At that time, Wilson gave the company the opportunity to file an environmental assessment report, a report that could take up to two years to complete.
What the province expects
Draft terms of reference for that environmental assessment report were released Wednesday by the Environment Department.
“Northern Pulp is expected to prepare an environmental assessment report that addresses the deficiencies in the information provided to date through the environmental assessment process and which fulfills the intent of the terms of reference,” the draft term document states. “The environmental assessment report must consider all the effects that are likely to arise from the project, including any not explicitly identified in the terms of reference. The EA report will be used to meet the requirements of a provincial Class I undertaking.”
The environmental assessment report from the company must include, among other requirements, a description of and reason for the project, alternative methods of carrying out the waste water disposal and a description of the environmental risks, including any effects on species or habitats at risk, along with measures that can be taken to prevent or mitigate those risks.
The report also must identify a program to monitor environmental effects produced by the project during its construction, operation and abandonment phases and a program of public information to explain the project.
The information in the report is to be prepared taking into consideration comments from the public, the provincial Environment Department, the federal government and its agencies, municipalities in the vicinity of the project, any affected aboriginal people or cultural community and neighbouring jurisdictions to Nova Scotia in the vicinity of the project. Public and government reviewers have 30 days, until Feb. 7, to comment on the draft terms of reference. Once that happens, the company will have a chance to comment on the draft.
A final terms of reference will be provided to the company by early April.
Once the terms of reference are final, the company will have up to two years to complete the environmental assessment report.
Northern Pulp initially registered its effluent treatment plant project for assessment in February but previous environment minister Margaret Miller asked for a company focus report on March 29 to provide additional information.
That focus report was submitted on Oct. 2 and Wilson on Dec. 17 called for more project information in the form of an environmental assessment report.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
