Alberta Newsprint Commits Nearly C$50M to Diversify Its Whitecourt Mill

STRENGTH · Export Alberta · Manufacturing

Alberta Newsprint Company, jointly owned by The Stern Group and West Fraser Timber, announced a nearly C$50-million modernization of its Whitecourt mill — the province’s only newsprint facility — to add book paper and high-bright paper grades alongside newsprint, backed by more than C$1.5 million from Alberta’s Investment and Growth Fund, Paper Advance reports. The August 17 announcement creates 13 permanent positions and retains more than 220 existing jobs.

The timing is instructive: within a week of the announcement, U.S. tariffs landed on Canadian lumber and paper categories. Moving from a single declining commodity grade into higher-value products is precisely the play trade-exposed Alberta manufacturers are being pushed toward — and this one comes with provincial co-investment.

What it means: Product-line diversification into higher-value grades is the template for tariff resilience in Alberta manufacturing — if your product mix is concentrated in one commodity category and one export market, this is the model worth studying.