US tariffs idle the paper mill at the heart of Témiscaming, Quebec

Mill employees

360 jobs

Most of the mill's 360 employees are out of work, kept afloat with partial pay from government tariff relief, after its American owner, RYAM, began an "economic shutdown" for an indefinite period in early October.

The mill sends roughly 75 per cent of its output to the US, which imposed 50 per cent duties in August on about $28 billion of Canadian goods, including pulp and paper products.

Workers want to buy the mill back from RYAM, as employees did in 1973 when its then-owner threatened to close it. Ottawa says it has made $400 million available to the forestry sector.

We feel we got into a war with kid's water guns to fight back.

— Alain Gauthier, mayor of Témiscaming