Speech (committee meeting)

{
    "time": "2026-05-28 11:15:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Guy Trottier (General Manager, White Birch Paper)",
        "fr": "Guy Trottier (directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, Papiers White Birch)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"9397349\" data-originallang=\"en\">Good morning. My name is Guy Trottier. I'm the general manager of a pulp and paper mill located in Quebec City. We're right next to the Chateau Frontenac. We're owned by White Birch Paper. This mill has been in operation since 1927, which is 99 years of operation. I've had the privilege of being involved with the company for over 35 years. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397350\" data-originallang=\"en\">Our business was formerly steered toward newsprint manufacturing, with products sold worldwide. India was a major customer for products but has completely faded away in the last few years as we have observed changes in business relations between the countries. With the decline in demand for newsprint both locally and internationally, our production site has engaged in a strong diversification effort to reposition our production line. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397351\" data-originallang=\"en\">We now have three niche segments: high brightness paper, recycled kraft and recycled paperboard. Our most recent project involved converting machine one from newsprint to recycled kraft paper.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397352\" data-originallang=\"en\">We were pursuing several goals in this conversion. We wanted to reduce our consumption of wood chips. The increased tariffs on lumber have made Quebec's wood chips less available and more costly. The second thing we were pursuing was to steer our production toward products with increasing demand versus newsprint and to position our manufacturing site away from mega-producers of commodity products. We also wanted to become a large recycling centre and to bring a plastic substitution replacement solution to the market. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397353\" data-originallang=\"en\">We successfully started this new operation. A few months after start-up, at the beginning of 2025, the threat of tariffs emerged in the United States. Our products' destination was 90% to U.S. originally, but this had us revise our position and steer sales differently. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397354\" data-originallang=\"en\">Nevertheless, if tariffs had been imposed at this critical point in time, which was early 2025, it would have potentially ruined all our efforts toward this project. We have now diversified our product portfolio and fully ramped up production and sales, a success that came with a massive internal effort by our team.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397355\" data-originallang=\"en\">This project was initially presented in 2022 and benefited from the electricity rebate program from the Quebec Ministry of Finance. That was a strong tailwind that allowed us to reduce the risk of the project and come up with an attractive return on investment. The electricity rebate program came to an end at the end of 2025. That's really important to mention. It is now difficult to bring additional projects to life in light of this. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397356\" data-originallang=\"en\">Our mill has presented a new project aiming at consolidating the future of our production site. We are now looking for ways to support this new effort. Over the last seven years, we've had the opportunity to visit a few dozen pulp and paper production sites around the world. Right now, China has become the largest producer. It used to be the United States. Now it really is China, and the United States is second. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397357\" data-originallang=\"en\">Worldwide, what we're witnessing is large investments in new manufacturing sites. We're also seeing massive upgrades of existing ones. Mills in Quebec and Canada that previously benefited from an abundant wood chip supply and energy sources are now competing against really big machines, and we are basically trailing behind in this industry right now. The worldwide competition is increasingly fierce. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397358\" data-originallang=\"en\">The world is changing. The way that countries do business together has changed as well. The big question now becomes how we work together to provide future generations with an opportunity to continue manufacturing operations in this new environment. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397359\" data-originallang=\"en\">Thank you.</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"9397349\" data-originallang=\"en\">Bonjour. Je m'appelle Guy Trottier. Je suis directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral d'une usine de p\u00e2tes et papiers situ\u00e9e \u00e0 Qu\u00e9bec. Nous sommes juste \u00e0 c\u00f4t\u00e9 du Ch\u00e2teau Frontenac. Notre usine appartient \u00e0 Papiers White Birch. Elle est en activit\u00e9 depuis 1927, c'est\u2011\u00e0\u2011dire depuis 99 ans. J'ai le privil\u00e8ge de faire partie de cette entreprise depuis plus de 35 ans.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397350\" data-originallang=\"en\">Nos activit\u00e9s \u00e9taient auparavant ax\u00e9es sur la fabrication de papier journal, dont les produits \u00e9taient vendus dans le monde entier. L'Inde \u00e9tait l'un de nos principaux clients, mais elle ne fait plus partie de notre client\u00e8le depuis quelques ann\u00e9es, compte tenu des changements survenus dans nos relations commerciales. Face au d\u00e9clin de la demande de papier journal \u00e0 l'\u00e9chelle locale comme \u00e0 l'\u00e9chelle internationale, notre site de production a pris d'importantes mesures de diversification pour repositionner notre cha\u00eene de production.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397351\" data-originallang=\"en\">Nous avons d\u00e9sormais trois cr\u00e9neaux: le papier haute brillance, le papier kraft recycl\u00e9 et le carton recycl\u00e9. Nous avons derni\u00e8rement converti la machine initialement destin\u00e9e au papier journal pour qu'elle produise du papier kraft recycl\u00e9.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397352\" data-originallang=\"en\">Cette conversion avait plusieurs objectifs. Nous voulions r\u00e9duire notre consommation de copeaux de bois. La hausse des droits de douane sur le bois d'\u0153uvre a rendu les copeaux de bois qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois moins disponibles et plus co\u00fbteux. Notre deuxi\u00e8me objectif \u00e9tait d'orienter notre production vers des produits dont la demande est en hausse, plut\u00f4t que vers le papier journal, et de positionner notre site de fabrication pour le diff\u00e9rencier des m\u00e9ga-producteurs de produits de base. Nous voulions aussi devenir un grand centre de recyclage et proposer une solution de substitution au plastique.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397353\" data-originallang=\"en\">Cette nouvelle orientation a port\u00e9 fruit. Quelques mois plus tard, au d\u00e9but de 2025, la menace de droits de douane a surgi aux \u00c9tats-Unis. \u00c0 l'origine, 90 % de nos produits \u00e9taient destin\u00e9s au march\u00e9 am\u00e9ricain, mais cette situation nous a amen\u00e9s \u00e0 revoir notre strat\u00e9gie et \u00e0 r\u00e9orienter nos ventes.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397354\" data-originallang=\"en\">Cela dit, si des droits de douane avaient \u00e9t\u00e9 impos\u00e9s \u00e0 ce moment crucial, c'est\u2011\u00e0\u2011dire au d\u00e9but de 2025, cela aurait pu an\u00e9antir tous nos efforts. Nous avons d\u00e9sormais diversifi\u00e9 notre gamme de produits et pleinement relanc\u00e9 la production et les ventes, et ce succ\u00e8s est le fruit d'un effort consid\u00e9rable de la part de notre \u00e9quipe.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397355\" data-originallang=\"en\">Ce projet a d'abord \u00e9t\u00e9 pr\u00e9sent\u00e9 en 2022 et a b\u00e9n\u00e9fici\u00e9 du programme de rabais d'\u00e9lectricit\u00e9 du minist\u00e8re des Finances du Qu\u00e9bec. Cela a \u00e9t\u00e9 un formidable coup de pouce qui nous a permis de r\u00e9duire les risques et d'obtenir un retour sur investissement int\u00e9ressant. Le programme de rabais d'\u00e9lectricit\u00e9 a pris fin \u00e0 la fin de 2025. C'est tr\u00e8s important \u00e0 rappeler. Il est d\u00e9sormais difficile d'envisager de nouveaux projets.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397356\" data-originallang=\"en\">Notre usine a pr\u00e9sent\u00e9 un nouveau projet visant \u00e0 consolider l'avenir de notre site de production. Nous cherchons actuellement des moyens de soutenir cette nouvelle initiative. Depuis sept ans, nous avons eu l'occasion de visiter quelques dizaines de sites de production de p\u00e2te et papier \u00e0 travers le monde. \u00c0 l'heure actuelle, la Chine en est devenue le plus grand producteur. Auparavant, c'\u00e9tait les \u00c9tats-Unis. Aujourd'hui, c'est bel et bien la Chine, et les \u00c9tats-Unis viennent en second.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397357\" data-originallang=\"en\">Partout dans le monde, on assiste \u00e0 d'importants investissements dans de nouveaux sites de production. On observe \u00e9galement une actualisation massive des sites existants. Les usines du Qu\u00e9bec et du Canada, qui b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaient auparavant d'un approvisionnement abondant en copeaux de bois et en sources d'\u00e9nergie, sont d\u00e9sormais confront\u00e9es \u00e0 la concurrence d'\u00e9normes machines, et nous sommes actuellement \u00e0 la tra\u00eene dans ce secteur. La concurrence mondiale est de plus en plus f\u00e9roce.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397358\" data-originallang=\"en\">Le monde \u00e9volue. La mani\u00e8re dont les pays font commerce a \u00e9galement chang\u00e9. La grande question qui se pose d\u00e9sormais est de savoir comment nous allons collaborer pour offrir aux g\u00e9n\u00e9rations futures la possibilit\u00e9 de poursuivre les activit\u00e9s de production dans ce nouvel environnement.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"9397359\" data-originallang=\"en\">Merci.</p>"
    },
    "url": "/committees/international-trade/45-1/39/guy-trottier-1/",
    "politician_url": null,
    "politician_membership_url": null,
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "13529005",
    "document_url": "/committees/international-trade/45-1/39/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fcommittees%2Finternational-trade%2F45-1%2F39%2F"
    }
}