After years of waiting, demolition of Smurfit-Stone concrete silos in Bathurst finally underway | CBC News

Work to remove the large silos at the former Smurfit-Stone mill in downtown Bathurst began Wednesday morning.

It’s the most obvious bit of work that’s been done on the site since the provincial government took over the waterfront property earlier this year.

Kim Chamberlain, mayor of Bathurst, said after waiting 19 years for the silos to be demolished, seeing the work start is “almost an early Christmas gift.”

“We are ecstatic,” said Chamberlain. 

“We are very happy. We’ve been working hard on that file for the past few years.”

The provincial government took ownership of the site earlier this year after a tax sale for the three lots formerly owned by Smurfit-Stone elicited no bids. The property taxes owed total more than $2.5 million.

The site has long been considered an eyesore by residents of the area.

Finance Minister René Legacy, the Liberal MLA for Bathurst West-Beresford, said it took a while to get the political will to move forward on the site.

” I guess everybody ran out of reasons not to do it. So now we’re ready to go and really move forward,” said Legacy.

The site of the former paper mill hasn’t been operational since 2005.

At one time it was a major employer in the city, with 270 workers at the time it closed.

That history means that even though a lot of people are happy to see the silos come down, the feeling is also a little bittersweet for some.

“You have to understand that we have a lot of local men that worked there and retired from there, and that was their home. They worked there every day,” said Chamberlain.

While the site is now owned by the province, its future is still up in the air.

Legacy said he’s interested in hearing from the city about what kind of development would best fit that area.

“There could be residential, there could be light commercial, there could be light industrial, and then there could be just really nice green spaces that people can enjoy,” said Legacy. 

“It’s just a matter of identifying the spots and then looking for developers to potentially come up with some projects.”

Chamberlain said she expects it will take a while to completely remove the silos as they contain a lot of rebar — steel rods used to reinforce concrete.

“I don’t think it’s gonna come down that easily,” said Chamberlain. 

“I think it’s going to take a few days … it was well built.”