Minto mayor hopeful fibreglass plant jobs can be saved

The mayor of the Village of Mintosaid he was "blindsided" earlier this week by the announcement that RPS Composites, a local fibreglass manufacturer that has employedas many as 40 locals, is closing at the end of March.

Mayor Donald Gould told Information Morning Fredericton he isn't giving up on the company and has scheduled a meeting to see if there's anything that can be done to reverse the decision to close the plant.

• 'We were speechless:' fibreglass plant in Minto to close in March

"We're just trying to recover from closures of NB Coal and NB Power over the last number of years," he said.

It was back in 2009 that NB Power announced it was closing the coal-fired Grand Lake Generating Station, along with the NB Coal division, which together employed about 95 people.

Gould said he isn't giving up on the RPS Composites plant because his village can't afford to lose any more jobs.

Heis part of the Grand Lake Growth Committee, which works to support local businesses, while also looking for new companies for theregion.

He said a meeting scheduled for next week will include members of the committee andofficials from Opportunities New Brunswick.

"Bythat point we willhavespoken to the company ... to see if there is any way of maybe reversingthedecisionor seeing exactly what they may be able to do in terms of keeping the business going," Gould said.

'This is not something we do lightly'

Donald Rhodenizer, the vice-president in charge of Canadian operations for RPS Composites, confirmedFriday that the process of closing the Minto plant has begun because of "a lack of sales volume."

He said the problems began in 2016 for the Mintooperation, which has just eight office staff working right now.

"Last year things got slow towards the end of the summer and continued slowing down," Rhodenizer said.

"It's a great shop and a wonderful team to work with ... this is not something we do lightly."

Rhodenizer said the Mahone Bay, N.S., operation, which employs about 90 people, will remain open but he doesn't see "anything on the horizon" that would change the decision to close the Minto plant.

Loss of jobs could have domino effect

Gould said he last visited RPS Composites in July and left with the impression that the company would survive, even though fibreglass contracts were down.

"They told us that they were in a good financial position to weather thestorm," Gouldsaid, but since then RPS Composites officials havetold him the markets have changed.

"The company said the projections show no work available for the Minto shop in 2017 and 2018 and couldn't make any projections beyond that point."

Gouldworries that with the loss of another big employer, the population of his village will shrink.

"It has a dominoeffect. If we lose residents ... that's important because population's important because it affects school enrolments and as you know ... there could be a point sometime where we start losing schools."