"We may have a little party, but there is still lots of work to do.  I really want to  thank the District staff who worked so hard to make this deal happen, they are the one who crunched all the numbers  and worked with the lawyers, they deserve a big thank you." But Killam says the community is not fully back on its feet, and when that happens, she  says that will be the time to  have a major celebration.

The mill has been idle for two years since Pope and Talbot went into  recivership.  It was later purchased by Worthington,  and the Province had to take over maintenance of the mill to ensure it would pose  no threat to the  environment during  the cold  winter.

Killam says  she expects many of the people who left Mackenzie when the mill shut down two years  ago  to  return "I have two children who used to work there,  and they are  hoping to come home."  The Mayor says the District  was owed three years of  back taxes, and  she expects most of that money will be  recouped.  Killam says engineers are already on site,  assessing the  facility, and expects the first workers to  return will be maintenance crews.

Paper Excellence B-V expects to ship  80% of the pulp produced  to Asia where the parent company  operates two paper mills.

The mill is expected to resume  production this fall. This is the Paper Excellence Group's second acquisition in Canada. It currently owns and operates a pulp mill in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.

"We are very pleased to have a company like Paper Excellence establish itself in British Columbia," says Pat Bell, Minister of Forests and Range. "It already has experience in Canada with its mill in Meadow Lake and the company has maintained a high level of safe profitable production and regulatory compliance."

It took a concerted effort by a number of organizations and groups to get the mill to the point where it could resume production. Team Mackenzie of the Mackenzie Pulp Mill Development Corporation preserved the capacity of the mill to resume production. The Provincial Government worked with the District of Mackenzie to consolidate and reduce the debt of the mill.

"I want to credit the hard working public servants in the Rural BC Secretariat for the instrumental role they played in crafting a deal that will ensure hundreds of people in Mackenzie can head back to work," said B.C. Community and Rural Development Minister Bill Bennett. "It is personally gratifying to be able to help the District of Mackenzie at a time when the people of Mackenzie really need it."

The McLeod Lake Indian Band worked with the Ministry of Forests and Range to help secure the fibre needed to start the mill.

"We are very pleased that we have been able to work with the government and the community and be part of the effort to bring the mill back into production," says Chief Derek Orr of the McLeod Lake Indian Band. "By working together we can provide benefits for the entire region."

Also important was the negotiation of a new collective agreement with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP). The agreement preserves wages, benefits and pensions, while enabling the mill to reopen with significant cost reductions.

"This is very good news for our members and for the community of Mackenzie," says CEP Western Region Vice President Jim Britton. "We are extremely happy to see our members return to well paying jobs within the forest industry and that it looks like they have a future in this industry."