New BrunswickInfrastructure upgrades will allow housing and commercial development at an old paper mill in Bathurst, which has been closed since 2005. Infrastructure spending to convert old Bathurst paper mill site into development-ready landSavannah Awde · CBC News · Posted: Oct 27, 2025 4:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesStanding in front of the old mill site in Bathurs on Monday were Acadie-Bathurst MP Serge Cormier, Finance Minister and Bathurst MLA René Legacy, Bathurst Mayor Kim Chamberlain, and Environment and Climate Change Minister Gilles LePage. (Victoria Walton/CBC)A former mill site that’s sat vacant for 20 years on the Bathurst waterfront will see $5.8 million to attract development.That funding from the provincial and federal governments will cover the cost to connect the old Smurfit-Stone paper mill site with city water and sewer services. Bathurst MLA René Legacy said this in turn should encourage developers to bid for the land, eventually giving it new life as housing or commercial space.The mill, which had employed hundreds in the region, closed in 2005. Vacant ever since, it has fallen into disrepair.WATCH | Mill site is ‘prime’ waterfront property, Bathurst mayor says :Bathurst mayor ‘ecstatic’ about movement on old mill siteAfter the property stood stagnant for years, new funding will prepare the abandoned Smurfit-Stone site in Bathurst for housing.Residents often compared the dilapidated site to “a war zone,” Bathurst Mayor Kim Chamberlain told CBC News.She called it “a day of triumph” for Bathurst at the funding announcement on Monday.”We succeeded in removing this eyesore from our city,” Chamberlain said. “The potential for what to become on this prime, waterfront property will be enormous for us.” Bathurst MLA René Legacy said those water and sewer upgrades will happen in the summer, but the province will put a request for proposals out this fall for interested developers to respond over the winter. Legacy hopes developers will be able to begin construction on the site by 2027.The silos on the old mill site were demolished last fall. (Réal Fradette/Radio-Canada)The province took ownership of the land in question last year at a tax sale.The site changed hands several times after the mill closed, with owners promising to clean and redevelop it, but that never happened.Ultimately, the site had $2.5 million in property taxes outstanding when the province took ownership. Two large silos remaining on the site also had to be demolished.The project will now see $2.3 million from the New Brunswick’s Regional Development Corporation and $3.5 million from the federal government. Chamberlain said council is “ecstatic” to see progress.Mayor Kim Chamberlain said Bathurst residents sometimes describe the old mill site as ‘a war zone.’ (Victoria Walton/CBC)”It’s difficult, because when you don’t own the land, to move forward with this is not easy,” the mayor said in an interview. “We were waiting for this moment.”Legacy said the site is located along a main entrance to the city, and he has already heard interest from developers.Despite cold conditions Monday morning on Chaleur Bay, Legacy said there was nowhere else he would rather be.”I didn’t get in this thing … to clean up, I got into it to build,” he said. “And we’re not building yet, so we’re not done.”ABOUT THE AUTHORSavannah Awde is a reporter with CBC New Brunswick. You can contact her with story ideas at savannah.awde@cbc.ca.With files from Victoria Walton
Waterfront ‘war zone’ gets $5.8M to become housing, commercial space
