'We've been completely fooled,' MP says of recent acquisitions in Canadian forestry

Opposition MPs are expressing concern that the foreign owner of one of Canada's largest forestry companies, after buying up two major Canadian companies, is now also formally acquiring his family's Indonesian-Chinese pulp and paper conglomerate – a company which he has long denied is active. tandem with.

A half-page announcement quietly published by the European Union on Monday states that Jackson Wijaya, owner of Paper Excellence, will take over “sole control” of Asia Pulp & Paper from his father.

The controversial conglomerate has a history of forest destruction in Indonesia and has been targeted Indonesian And global environmental groups.

After acquiring Canadian pulp and paper companies Domtar in 2021 and Resolute Forest Products in 2023 – all with the blessing of the federal government – ​​Paper Excellence became the largest private manager of forests in Canada, with control of 22 million hectares, an area which is four times the size of Nova. Scotia.

The company has repeatedly stated – including in testimony before Parliament last year – that although Jackson Wijaya received some help from his family in the early years of Paper Excellence, which he founded in 2007, the Canadian and foreign entities operated completely independently for years.

“We have been completely fooled by a very questionable company,” NDP natural resources critic Charlie Angus said in response to this week's announcement.

“I don't think the Canadian government would have ever allowed Asia Pulp & Paper [to buy Domtar and Resolute] because of his questionable record. So the family starts another company. The family says, 'Oh, we're not connected in any way.' Despite the obvious connections, they get… to buy Canadian raw materials. So we are in a position that was completely predictable,” Angus said.

Spokespeople for Paper Excellence, which announced last month it would use the name Domtar for its company, did not immediately respond to emailed questions from CBC News on Wednesday afternoon.

'Deeply worrying'

Conservative natural resources critic Shannon Stubbs said the news is “deeply concerning for Canadian workers and communities” amid mounting job losses and plant closures in the country's forestry sector.

“The Liberals must be accountable to Canadians and be transparent as it was alleged that the purchase of factories in Canada was not related to Asia Pulp & Paper,” she said in a statement.

Audrey Champoux, spokeswoman for Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, said there is little the government can do now under the Investment Canada Act, which allows the federal cabinet to block foreign investment in Canada on economic and national security grounds.

The law “applies to investments in Canada by non-Canadians,” Champoux said. “Asia Pulp & Paper is a business group headquartered in Indonesia and China and is a separate legal entity from Paper Excellence. As such, the change in ownership of Asia Pulp is not subject to the Investment Canada Act.”

Since 2010, Paper Excellence has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and provincial loans and grants, promising revitalization and jobs in some economically hard-hit communities. But it eventually closed numerous factories, including in Powell River and Mackenzie, BC Espanola, Ont., and Pictou, NS. The company currently owns more than 30 factories in Canada, the United States, Brazil and France.

A joint investigation by CBC and several Canadian and global media outlets last year found extensive evidence that as recently as 2020, Paper Excellence collaborated with Asia Pulp & Paper on market research, business strategy and legal filings, even seeking clues about pricing and sales volumes. .

'Very opaque'

Priyanka Vittal, a lawyer for Greenpeace Canada, said the environmental group is concerned about the disappearing boundaries between Paper Excellence and its foreign cousin, in part because it is a private company, with little financial transparency, that captures much of an important national resource checks. .

“It was very opaque, and the concern is what that means in terms of their activities in Canadian forests and responsibility,” Vittal said.

Jayme Albert, a spokesperson for Canada's Competition Bureau, noted that during the review of Paper Excellence's acquisition of Domtar, the agency considered whether there was a strong common interest between Paper Excellence and Asia Pulp & Paper.

The desk determined that even if it did, it would not “substantially reduce” competition, meaning it likely would have approved the acquisition anyway.