Right from the outset, when we realized that the company was struggling, we met with a manager from the paper mill. We offered our cooperation, told them that their success would be our success, and we invited them to put everything on the table. Without their asking and even before this was done anywhere else, we decided, in concert with city appraisers, to devalue the plant. With the assistance of the RCM—because, as I said earlier, the 11 other towns cooperated—we decided to return some $500,000 in the form of a lower assessment and tax breaks every year for a two-year period.
The workers were extraordinarily supportive. We really were a team. At the time, we had struck a committee which was working on an integrated complex project, on which sat representatives of sawmills, paper mills and cogeneration plants. The workers agreed that 100 employees would be asked to retire.
Over the years, we realized that, being a bad manager, the company had not implemented the projects it wanted to carry out. Knowing that the paper mill was on one side of the river, and the sawmill right opposite on the other side, we considered the possibility of building a bridge. This bridge would have made it possible for a train to haul chips and wood bark across the river by rail, something that has to be done by truck. So, we decided to make representations to governments to extend the train route, because we know the federal government has a program. Also, we are currently involved in a project to build an industrial park on this side. We are working very hard to realize the bridge project.
Furthermore, management had, for years, been wasting $300,000 worth of steam, in accordance with the contract it had signed with Boralex. We realized, in talking to people from the community, managers and others who work for them, that they had already considered the possibility of installing a low-pressure turbine to recover that steam, and at least try and equal the amounts they were losing. They were the ones who sold Boralex, they were the ones who signed the contract to provide them with biomass and they, too, are the ones who set the cost of steam. So, they had not done that. We told them that we would cooperate, that we would pay, that we would look for and find solutions, and we offered them our collaboration. We decided we would do that with or without them, but we are still prepared to work with them. They shut down the plant, something we learned by accident, through someone else. They didn't even call us, and even the union only found out the day after, when it received a press release. There is not a lot of trust between the two sides.