AbitibiBowater to study plan to reopen Gatineau plant

The City of Gatineau has persuaded AbitibiBowater to conduct a $100,000 feasibility study of a plan to reopen its paper plant, which it closed in May with a loss of more than 300 jobs.

A city committee has calculated the plant could make a profit if it concentrated on producing cardboard rather than paper, and company spokesman Jean Philip Coté said AbitibiBowater got the message.

For 80 years, the plant in Gatineau has been a cornerstone of the city's economy, a key employer that Coun. Stéphane Lauzon says must be saved.

"They opened in 1929. They have three generations, like my family. My grandfather worked there. My father made his life over there. I worked there for nine years. It's like part of the family that mill," Lauzon said.

Lauzon is on the committee that persuaded the company to do the feasibility study and pay for it.  

But the company also won a concession from the union. It's being allowed to remove two large engines from the Gatineau plant and move them to its Thunder Bay, Ont., plant. That has Lauzon worried.

"Yeah. That would make a difference, that's for sure. [It] means that they don't want to go ahead. We need those machines to make cardboard," he said.

Reopening the plant could cost as much as $200 million.

The study could take up to two months.