J.D. Irving, Limited withdraws rezoning application

J.D. Irving will withdraw its application to rezone a portion of its company-owned green space adjacent to its pulp mill in west Saint John. The application was intended to accommodate parking for the construction workers required for the company’s $1.1 billion Project NextGen and continued mill operations. The following is the company’s statement:

“Saint John Common Council and city staff are placing unreasonable conditions on our ask to rezone our land, effectively denying our application. The company has proposed to spend $7 million on its parking solution and extensive community upgrades. Despite this, the city would only permit a temporary five-year rezoning for parking, as well as require the company to agree to an open-ended financial commitment to the future redevelopment of the provincial highway at Saint John’s Simms Corner. We repeatedly and clearly communicated a temporary approval is not at all viable.

This drawn-out process is only adding uncertainty to the significant economic headwinds all businesses are facing in a tariff environment. This process, which began in July of 2024, has now stretched out over nine months with ten hours of public hearings, yet there is still no firm date for the first and second reading of this rezoning, creating more uncertainty.

In the long-term, we still require parking and will reapply for a rezoning at some point in the future. In the meantime, we are forced to proceed with a less efficient, temporary option both for the workers and the company.

The company-owned green space, known locally as Wolastoq Park, is currently closed for the season and will reopen once the company better understands the future plans for the area, including the anticipated additional land government may need from Wolastoq Park to accommodate the approach to the Reversing Falls bridge and Simms Corner redevelopment.”