HALIFAX—The Nova Scotia government is calling for more information from Northern Pulp before it decides whether the company can pump wastewater into the Northumberland Strait, casting even more doubt on the mill’s future.

The much-anticipated decision from Environment Minister Margaret Miller on Northern Pulp’s effluent treatment proposal was released Friday at One Government Place in Halifax.

Miller declined, for the time-being, to allow Northern Pulp to begin construction of a new effluent treatment facility on the mill’s Pictou County property and a 15.5-km pipeline to carry treated effluent into the Northumberland Strait.

She said she needs the company to submit a focus report that provides more information on the potential impacts on the environment.

“We make our decisions based on science and the best available evidence,” Miller said. “In this case I am assured that there is not yet enough information to do that.”

Miller’s department will give Northern Pulp terms of reference by April 24, detailing what exactly is required.

The company received a letter from Miller on Friday morning explaining the decision and listing 19 “key deficiencies” in its environmental assessment submission.

According to Miller’s letter, the submission leaves out descriptions of the chemical composition of the treated effluent, details for pipeline leak detection, baseline surveys of fish habitats and water quality, adequate assessment on potential human health impacts and a Mi’kmaq ecological knowledge study, among other elements.

The CEO of Paper Excellence — the company that owns Northern Pulp — said he was disappointed because he thought the submission was “fairly complete.”

“I believe we have submitted the required information,” Brian Baarda told reporters at Province House on Friday afternoon. “So we need to assess what they think was lacking.”

Baarda said his company will move forward with the requested focus report, which he expects to take six to nine months.

Should the minister approve the effluent treatment facility at that time, Baarda said, it would be operational no sooner than summer 2021.

Currently, Northern Pulp pumps its effluent into Boat Harbour, an estuary in the backyard of Pictou Landing First Nation. That community has been calling for a stop to the pumping effluent into the estuary since the practice began in 1967.

In 2015 the government of Stephen McNeil mandated the closure of Boat Harbour, with a deadline of Jan. 31, 2020.

Northern Pulp recently requested a one-year extension for Boat Harbour. McNeil responded that he was committed to the 2020 deadline.

After Friday’s announcement, McNeil said there was no reason for him to reconsider the deadline.

“The Boat Harbour Act is the Boat Harbour Act,” he said, referring to the 2015 legislation that set the deadline.

“Today the minister provided the company with a path to meet the requirements of an (environmental assessment), and we’ll wait for them to do the work,” said McNeil.

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Northern Pulp needs a replacement to Boat Harbour to remain in operation. Baarda said a temporary shutdown is not feasible but stopped short of saying the mill would close permanently if there’s no Boat Harbour extension.

“We’re not going to rest until the deadline,” he said.

Many in the fishing community have been fighting against the potential pipeline, expressing their concern over how the treated effluent would impact the fishing waters they rely on for their livelihoods.

Pictou County fishers say there isn’t enough scientific evidence to show how the treated waste will impact crab and lobster stocks. The province, too, identified a lack of information in Northern Pulp’s submission.

Baarda argued that the mill is already pumping treated effluent into the Northumberland Strait — via Boat Harbour — and therefore didn’t think the new effluent path would change things.

“There’s no impact on the fisheries at this stage, so we don’t think there will be in the future as well,” he said.

Baarda said Miller’s decision puts the jobs of 330 mill employees at risk, as well as 11,500 workers in the province’s forestry industry.

The president of industry advocacy group Forest Nova Scotia supports Northern Pulp’s request for an extension to Boat Harbour.

“Unfortunately, this announcement causes further delay and uncertainties in the forest sector as we approach the looming January 2020 deadline,” Kent Dykeman said in an emailed statement.

The premier acknowledged the importance of the mill to the forestry industry.

“This mill is integrated into the forest sector unlike any other mill in the province. All of the saw mills send their chips and residuals to this mill,” McNeil said.

He added that his government is looking at other options for Nova Scotia wood chips, should the mill close, but no clear plan has been released publicly.

Once the mill’s focus report is submitted, it will be posted on the environment department website and the public will have 30 days to comment.

The minister will then have three options: accept the proposal, reject the proposal or require another environmental assessment report.

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