Nova Scotia’s Last Major Sawmill Closes Permanently

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Harry Freeman & Son Mill in Greenfield, Nova Scotia has decided to shut doors. The decision is likely to impact nearly 150 jobs and cause loss of millions of dollars to Queens County local economy.

According to the company, the recent closure of the Northern Pulp mill in Abercrombie Point, N.S. has led to lack of markets for wood chips. The company has been stockpiling wood chips. However, the declining market for chips makes it financially unviable for the company to buy wood. Northern Pulp has long been the ‘most critical customer’ of the company, said co-owner Richard Freeman. The decision to shut down the saw mill is the direct result of the closure of Northern Pulp and is not related to COVID-19, he added.

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Freeman Lumber is the largest operation to shut doors following the closure of Northern Pulp. While almost all other mills managed to survive by sending the wood chips to Port Hawkesbury Paper, the distance to the facility has proved sending materials from Freeman non-economical. The efforts to ship chips to a kraft mill outside of the province too failed, on account of high costs of shipments by rail and truck.

The closing of the province's second-largest sawmill is likely to affect landowners, contractors, loggers and smaller mills in western Nova Scotia.