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Abandoned Port Alice pulp mill decommissioning costs double to nearly $40 million

Court approves request for increased funding by Neucel bankruptcy manager PricewaterhouseCoopers
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The Neucel Specialty Cellulose pulp mill in Port Alice has remained dormant since shutting down production in 2015. (Tyson Whitney - North Island Gazette)

There has been another plot twist in the Neucel Specialty Cellulose pulp mill’s bankruptcy case.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) has been managing the bankruptcy process for the defunct Port Alice operation since it was appointed as receiver back in 2020. It had already spent $5 million and told the court it would need a total of $17 million to manage the site until March 31, 2021.

RELATED: Neucel declares bankruptcy

RELATED: Neucel to cost $17 million to decommission

RELATED: Pulp mill creditors unlikely to be paid

Now PWC has asked at a May 21 court hearing for the following:

1. Approval of an increase in the Receiver’s Borrowing Charge from $17 million to $39.743 million;

2. Approval of the activities of the Receiver from the date of the First Report to May 13th, 2021;

3. Approval of the accounts of PwC, in its capacity as Court-Appointed Receiver of Neucel Specialty Cellulose Ltd. and the accounts of its legal counsel, Fasken; and

4. Approval of the Misty Manor Condo sale and a Vesting Order directing the registrar at the Land Title Office to enter the purchaser as the owner and to expunge all financial encumbrances from title.

According to PWC’s website, all four requests were approved by the court.

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Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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