Domtar Corporation is the largest integrated producer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and the second largest in the world based on production capacity, and is also a manufacturer of papergrade pulp.
Domtar designs, manufactures, markets and distributes a wide range of business, commercial printing, publication as well as technical and specialty papers with recognized brands such as Cougar, Lynx Opaque Ultra, Husky Opaque Offset, First Choice, Sandpiper (premium 100% recycled unbleached), and Domtar EarthChoice Office Paper, part of a family of environmentally and socially responsible papers.
Domtar owns and operates Domtar Distribution Group, an extensive network of strategically located paper distribution facilities. The company employs nearly 10,000 people. Its head office is in
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and its operations center is in
Fort Mill, South CarolinaFort Mill is a fast-growing suburban town in both York and Lancaster counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina, and a suburb of the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rock Hill...
.
History
In 1848, Henry Potter Burt founded Burt, Boulton Holdings Ltd. in England, a company that specialized in treating timber against rot from moisture. The company used substances, such as creosote derived from coal tar, to prolong lumber's useful life, supplying railway ties and pilings for wharves and foundations throughout Europe and the British Empire. Within eleven years Burt, Boulton was exporting to North America and acquired a sawmill in
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
's
Eastern TownshipsThe Eastern Townships is a tourist region and a former administrative region in south-eastern Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. Its northern boundary roughly followed Logan's Line, the geologic boundary between the flat,...
— the forerunner of Domtar's Windsor fine papers complex.
In the coal-intensive environment of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was an ever-increasing source of coal tar, and a demand for treated wood. Growth continued for Burt, Boulton Holdings Ltd. and led to the founding of a new company on February 4, 1903. It was called the Dominion Tar and Chemical Company, Limited. Dominion Tar's first plant was located in
Cape BretonCape Breton Regional Municipality often shortened to simply CBRM, is a regional municipality in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton County.According to the 2006 Census of Canada, the population within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is 102,250...
,
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, and began operations just eight months later.
In 1910, the company obtained two major contracts. The first, from the Canadian Pacific Railway, was to treat railway ties, and the second, with the Lake Superior Iron & Steel Company, was to process tar produced from the coke ovens at its Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario mill. This required the financing of two new plants at opposite ends of Eastern Canada. Burt, Boulton retained the majority of shares in the company but took on Senator John S. McLennan from Nova Scotia and Drummond, McCall & Co. of Montreal as the corporation's first Canadian shareholders.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, Dominion Tar established its head office in Montreal, where it remains today.
Throughout the first quarter of the twentieth century, Dominion Tar opened offices in Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver, and Calgary. On November 26, 1928, Canadian business magnates Sir Herbert Holt of Montreal and Harold Gundy of Toronto acquired the British-owned corporation.
The newly established North American Dominion Tar & Chemical Company Ltd. received its Canadian charter in 1929 and became a public company listed on the Montreal and Toronto stock exchanges. By the following year, it had unlisted trading privileges on the American Stock Exchange.
During the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of 1931-36, operating costs were slashed and capital expenditures delayed. Employee wages were reduced 10% and management was consolidated. Several plants were closed — some temporarily, others permanently. Dominion Tar withheld its annual dividend on common stock from 1932 to 1937.
In 1937, Dominion Tar invested in Industrial Minerals, an
AlbertaAlberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
company that was producing salt under the
Sifto brandSifto Canada is a salt mining and marketing company based in Canada, with its primary products being table salt, fine evaporated salt, water conditioning salt, agricultural salt, coarse salt, rock salt, and bulk salt...
. (Over time, other familiar brand names such as Arborite, Gyproc and Javex were added to the list.)
In the 1950s, Dominion Tar saw its assets grow from $35 million to over $500 million, with annual sales surging from $33 million to $325 million, and annual net profits climbing from less than $2.25 million to almost $19 million. Operations were still based on coal tar, salt, and construction materials. However, throughout this decade the company negotiated a series of
acquisitions to fuel its growth. In 1956, Dominion Tar began accumulating shares of Howard Smith Paper Mills, Canada's largest fine paper company. The subsequent acquisitions of the Howard Smith and St. Lawrence companies in 1961 would mark the company's entry into paper production.
It also elevated Dominion Tar into the ranks of the largest Canadian-owned corporations, with plants located across the country, over $350 million in assets, and annual sales to match.
While continuing to invest in all its business sectors, Dominion Tar began to concentrate efforts on paper manufacturing, and converted the Windsor, Quebec pulp mill to exclusive production of bleached hardwood pulp and building a new greenfield pulp mill in Lebel-sur-Quévillon.
In 1962, the Cape Breton operations were abandoned, leaving behind Dominion Tar's contribution to the
Sydney Tar PondsThe Sydney Tar Ponds are a hazardous waste site on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.Located on the eastern shore of Sydney Harbour in the former city of Sydney , the Tar Ponds form a tidal estuary at the mouth of Muggah Creek, a freshwater stream that empties into the harbour...
, a Canadian
hazardous wasteA hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. According to the U.S. environmental laws hazardous wastes fall into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes.Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known...
site on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
In 1965, the Dominion Tar & Chemical Company, Limited became known as Domtar Ltd., later changed to Domtar Inc. In addition, the newly minted Domtar was reorganized into Chemicals, Consumer Products (sold to Bristol Myers in 1967), Construction Materials, Kraft and Fine Papers, Newsprint and Containerboard, and Packaging divisions. By 1967, total assets had reached $477 million. Domtar was now determined to become a leader in paper manufacturing.
Throughout the 1970s, Domtar began to re-evaluate its non-paper businesses as it continued to expand. The first noteworthy venture was the acquisition of Buntin Reid Paper Co. Ltd., the largest independent fine paper merchant in Canada.
Next came the modernization and expansion of the flagship
Cornwall, OntarioCornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada and the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario. Cornwall is Ontario's easternmost city, located on the St...
mill (closed in 2006), the expansion of the
CaledoniaCaledonia is a small riverside community and former town located on the Grand River in Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada. Haldimand County is in the western part of the Niagara Peninsula, and had a population of 43,280 in 2001. The current mayor of Haldimand County is Ken Hewitt; Caledonia is...
gypsum wallboard plant, investments in a new laminated products plant at
HuntsvilleHuntsville is a town in the Muskoka Region of Ontario, Canada. It is located north of Toronto and south of North Bay....
, and the acquisition of McFarlaneson & Hodgson Inc., a major Canadian fine paper merchant. Domtar also launched several joint ventures to increase its lumber operations and to supply more wood to its newsprint mill in Dolbeau, Quebec.
At this time, La
Caisse de dépôt et placement du QuébecThe Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec manages public pension plans in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was founded in 1965 by an act of the National Assembly...
acquired a controlling interest in the company. Founded by the Quebec government a dozen years earlier, the Caisse was mandated to invest Quebec Pension Plan funds into the private and public sectors.
In 1979, Domtar acquired Reed Limited, a subsidiary of a U.K. pulp and paper manufacturer, with three corrugated container plants, a linerboard mill, and a waste
paper recyclingPaper recycling is the process of recovering waste paper and remaking it into new paper products. There are three categories of paper that can be used as feedstocks for making recycled paper: mill broke, pre-consumer waste, and post-consumer waste. Mill broke is paper trimmings and other paper...
plant, all in the Toronto area. That same year, Domtar expanded its West Coast gypsum facilities in the United States and Canada. Lastly, the company founded Domtar Resources Inc. as an entry into the natural gas and oil exploration business in western Canada. The leveling off of energy costs eventually led to the venture's demise.
In the early 1980s, Domtar withdrew from its manufacturing activities abroad and closed its U.K. fine paper mill. Paper remained paramount and Domtar began to explore the potential for paper recycling, and the Packaging Group proceeded to convert purchased waste paper into pulp.
Domtar's profitable activities through the early 1980s attracted the participation of La
Société générale de financementThe Société générale de financement is a holding company owned by the Government of Quebec. Its mission is to attract investment to Quebec by investing in other companies....
du Québec which, together with the Caisse, jointly acquired 42% of all outstanding common shares.
In 1989, the company divested itself of the Arborite Products and Salt divisions, and exited the consumer products business to turn to manufacturing commodities for conversion or packaging prior to sale.
In December 1997, Domtar and Cascades Inc. developed a joint venture called Norampac. A major North American manufacturer and distributor of container board, Norampac is Canada's largest producer of corrugated packaging. In 1998, it bought the
E. B. Eddy CompanyThe E. B. Eddy Company was a Canadian pulp and paper company, now a division of Domtar Inc. It was originally incorporated in 1886 as The E. B. Eddy Manufacturing Company with Ezra Butler Eddy as its president. Eddy had begun business in 1854 making and selling wooden matches out of his home in...
.
In January 2000, Domtar launched an e-business application, e-PAPER, enabling merchants and distributors to communicate with Domtar via the Internet. It also enabled customers to check on inventory, place orders, and track orders in transit via truck-mounted
GPSThe Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
units.
In July 2000, Domtar completed its acquisition of Ris Paper Company Inc., one of the largest independent merchants of commercial printing and business papers in the United States. On August 7, 2001, Domtar purchased four paper mills and their associated businesses and assets from
Georgia-PacificGeorgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, packaging, building products and related chemicals. As of Fall 2010, the company employed more than 40,000 people at more...
Corporation for a total of US$1.65 billion. With the acquisition of mills in
Ashdown, ArkansasAshdown is a city in Little River County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 4,781 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Little River County.-Geography:Ashdown is located at ....
;
NekoosaNekoosa is a city in Wood County, Wisconsin, United States. Its name derives from the Ho-Chunk word, "Nakrusa" which translates to "running water." The population was 2,590 at the 2000 census...
and
Port EdwardsPort Edwards is a village in Wood County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,944 at the 2000 census. The village is located northeast and adjacent to the Town of Port Edwards.- Geography :...
WisconsinWisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
; and
Woodland, MaineWoodland is the name of some places in the U.S. state of Maine:*Woodland, Aroostook County, Maine*Woodland, Washington County, Maine...
, Domtar became Canada's largest paper company in terms of sales, third-largest producer of uncoated free sheet paper in North America, and fourth-largest in the world. The Port Edwards plant was closed in 2008.
On Aug. 22, 2006, Domtar, Inc. agreed to combine with the paper business of U.S. forest products company
WeyerhaeuserWeyerhaeuser is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world. It is the world's largest private sector owner of softwood timberland; and the second largest owner of United States timberland, behind Plum Creek Timber...
Co. to form a new, U.S.-based publicly traded company operating as Domtar Corporation. On March 7, 2007, the transaction between Domtar, Inc. and Weyerhaeuser was officially completed.
The Head Office of Domtar Corporation is located in Montreal, Quebec, and its operating headquarters are in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Domtar is not viewed as a Canadian entity, and does not qualify for inclusion in Canadian stock indexes.
Cornwall coated cover was produced for a time in Chinese paper mills due to the closure of the Cornwall, Ontario plant, but production has since ceased.
Environmental Issues
The company was originally known as the Dominion Tar and Chemical Company, Limited. Its first plant was located in
Cape BretonCape Breton Regional Municipality often shortened to simply CBRM, is a regional municipality in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton County.According to the 2006 Census of Canada, the population within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is 102,250...
,
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. The Nova Scotia operations in
SydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
that began in 1903 were shut down in 1962. This site, which is located adjacent to the former Sydney Steel plant, is included in a $400 million
governmentGovernment refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
sponsored cleanup of what is referred to as the
Sydney Tar PondsThe Sydney Tar Ponds are a hazardous waste site on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.Located on the eastern shore of Sydney Harbour in the former city of Sydney , the Tar Ponds form a tidal estuary at the mouth of Muggah Creek, a freshwater stream that empties into the harbour...
.
Domtar operated a paper mill in Cornwall until 2006. The original mill was built by the Toronto Manufacturing Company in 1881 and purchased by Howard Smith Paper Mills in 1919. Howard Smith (along with St. Lawrence Company) was acquired by Dominion Tar & Chemical in 1961 which then rebranded itself as Domtar in 1965.
In the early 1970s, Domtar persuaded the City of Cornwall to permit the dumping of its paper mill waste (sludge, bark and lime dregs) behind a shopping mall in the middle of the city. Part of the dump was sodded over while dumping continued, and Domtar funded a "bunny" ski hill there, known as "Big Ben".
By the mid-1990s this Domtar landfill was rapidly filling up with sludge, bark, and lime dregs from the Cornwall kraft and fine paper mill. The problem was exacerbated when new waste water regulations required the Cornwall mill to also remove lignin and starch—formerly discharged into the St. Lawrence River—from its waste water. In response, Domtar began selling dewatered mill waste to Cornwall and area residents labeled as "Soil Conditioner”.
For some five years—until high levels of fecal coliforms and fecal streptococcus were discovered in the waste—this "Soil Conditioner" was sold for home garden use and was used by local farmers as fertilizer. Domtar at first claimed that their process could not have contributed e-coli and fecal coli from human feces. The company later revealed to the
Ontario Ministry of the EnvironmentThe Ministry of the Environment, established in 1972, is the portfolio in the Executive Council of Ontario responsible for addressing the environmental issues affecting the environmental protection of the Canadian province of Ontario and the World...
(MOE) that some toilets and urinals at the mill connected with the mill’s waste water treatment process, rather than with the city’s sanitary sewers. Moreover, a stormwater system also emptied into the sludge generating system.
The paper mill site (now a brownfield) was sold to Paris Holdings of Cornwall in 2006 with undisclosed terms and covenants relating to liability and clean up of soil and water affected, for over 120 years, by mill and human waste. Domtar still maintains control of the adjacent dump which is the source of a
leachateLeachate is any liquid that, in passing through matter, extracts solutes, suspended solids or any other component of the material through which it has passed....
plume polluting ground water between it and the St. Lawrence River (with the City of Cornwall Water Purification Plant in between). The dump which is officially named, the "Big Ben Landfill And Recreation Area", currently receives demolition waste and asbestos from the decommissioned paper mill.
In 2007 Domtar Corporation made a request to the MOE to additionally allow the dumping of soil at "Big Ben", contaminated with coal tar and bitumen waste, from another Dominion Tar and Chemical Co. Limited site in Cornwall. This manufacturing facility at 7th St. W. and Cumberland Street in Cornwall produced "bituminous fibre" pipe, from 1929 to 1976 known variously as; Cornwall "Standard" Fibre Conduit (1929–38), Cornwall Nocrete Conduit (1938–44), and finally No-co-rode Co. Ltd. - Fibre Conduit Division (1944–76).
In September 2008, over public opposition and in spite of MOE reports indicating off-site
leachateLeachate is any liquid that, in passing through matter, extracts solutes, suspended solids or any other component of the material through which it has passed....
impact from the dump and the liklihood of runoff to the St.Lawrence River, the MOE permitted dumping at the "Big Ben" site of contaminated soils from Domtar's former No-co-rode Ltd. site.
Domtar has not remediated its former lands in Cornwall including; its paper mill site, its sludge and bark dump, and its coal tar pipe lands.
Domtar also operated a wood treatment facility in
Cochrane, AlbertaCochrane is a town in the Canadian province of Alberta. The town is located 18 km west of the Calgary city limits along Highway 1A. With a population of 15,424 , Cochrane is the second largest town in Alberta and one of the fastest growing communities in Canada...
, treating railroad ties. This ceased operation about 1982, leaving significantly contaminated land. The latest of several clean-up operations is attempting to prevent the underground migration of the main contaminant plume. Building of non-residential structures is now in progress on part of the land.
The company once operated a wood treatment facility in the
TransconaTranscona may refer to:*Transcona, Winnipeg, a suburb of the city of Winnipeg in Manitoba and formerly a separate municipality*Transcona , a provincial electoral riding in the same city...
section of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The facility has been dismantled, and a residential development was created adjacent to the site in the early 1980s. The site itself remained largely vacant. In the late 1990s, years of debate and scientific
studyResearch can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
culminated with the re-detoxification. Many properties adjacent to the site were excavated to remove contaminated earth. Dozens of homes had their backyards completely dug up, and a handful also had parts of their homes removed and rebuilt—all at the company's expense. The site itself, was converted to a
wildlifeWildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
sanctuaryA sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...
with a nature path.
Other Domtar sites contaminated by creosote and coal tar by products include; "Sultana" in
CalgaryCalgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
,
AlbertaAlberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
;
Truro, Nova Scotia-Education:Truro has one high school, Cobequid Educational Centre. Post-secondary options include a campus of the Nova Scotia Community College, as well as the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in the neighboring town of Bible Hill.- Sports :...
;
Newcastle, New BrunswickNewcastle is a Canadian urban neighbourhood in the city of Miramichi, New Brunswick.Prior to municipal amalgamation in 1995, it was an incorporated town and the shire town of Northumberland County....
; and
New Westminster, British ColumbiaNew Westminster is an historically important city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and is a member municipality of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. It was founded as the capital of the Colony of British Columbia ....
.
Business Segments
Papers:
Paper:
4.2 million tons of fine paper capacity per year in 10 paper mills
Pulp:
1.9 million tons of market pulp shipments in excess of internal requirements during 2009 on a pro forma basis
Distribution:
More than 80 paper distribution facilities strategically located across North America.
Domtar recently joined a research centre funded by government and industry, called FPInnovations, to create a new company that uses nanocrystalline cellulose. This product strengthens anything it goes in to. With this new technology, it can make its paper or anything else they make much stronger. A new experimental plant will be located at the Domtar Windsor, Qc, pulp and paper mill site.
External links