By Brent Bosker

Province says news on pulp mill days away

Nov 24, 2010 | 10:37 AM

Very soon we could hear news about another company vying for the shuttered Prince Albert pulp mill.

“Days,” said Bill Boyd, minister of Energy and Resources, in response to questions about the provincial government receiving more information about a company in discussions with Domtar for the facility.

Paper Excellence was all but ruled last week, when Domtar said it was not negotiating with the Netherlands based company and would not sell to anyone that would compete against them.

Instead, Domtar said it was having discussions with third parties that would see the facility used for something other than pulp production.

“(Domtar has) indicated they have another qualified buyer,” Boyd said.

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The province hasn’t been told who it is because of a confidentiality agreement between Domtar and the unknown company, Boyd said.

“They’ve indicated they are a credible company … certainly a company that has the where-with-all to put together a deal of this type. A large international player,” said Boyd.

While Domtar is considering selling the facility, it has said it will continue preparing the site for demolition if a deal can't be reached.

Boyd said that shouldn't be an option and the province would work toward taking that off the table.

“I think we are along ways away from any concern in that area just yet,” he said.

“We hope that Domtar will be co-operative and be a willing seller. They have got right close to the line once and backed away and we were quite disappointed with respect to that. But we continue to work with them to … facilitate a sale of their facility.”

bbosker@panow.com