St. John, New Brunswick, Canada 10 May 2017 -- (News release) -- Irving Pulp & Paper has just completed its regularly scheduled maintenance shutdown that involves skilled trades workers from across the Maritimes. Contractors required during the maintenance include Millwrights, Pipefitters, Boilermakers, and Labourers. During the peak of the shutdown 1,200 people were onsite to complete the required work. The project, valued at $13 million, sees work completed over a 10 day period.

Derek McGraw, Project Manager from Lorneville Mechanical, notes that they had 250 skilled trades people from New Brunswick onsite during the shutdown, "it means a lot to us because having the Pulp Mill and J.D. Irving in our home town allows us to keep skilled trades people working and also our key staff working year round so that we are able to do other projects with our core workforce, primarily from the Maritimes."

In total, the 40 contract companies completed over 80,000 person hours of work. To get all these workers on site, contractors parked at Maritime Paper and were shuttled over by bus.

Cory Gallant, Manager of the Pulp & Paper Mill, thanked the dedicated team on this project for helping to make it successful. "Activity of this size couldn't happen without the hard work and dedication of all of our employees and all of the contractors we have onsite, many thanks to all those folks."