Environmental group Greenpeace is calling for more transparency on the part of Canada’s largest pulp and paper company, saying it has received millions of dollars in government funding without providing the public with details of how that money is being used or sharing its plans for the future of Canada’s forests.
In a report made public Monday, entitled Paper Trail to Nowhere, Greenpeace says $200 million in government funding has been handed to Domtar, formerly known as Paper Excellence, by federal and provincial governments across Canada between 2020 and 2024.
It also calls into question the company’s lobbying activities.
“This report demonstrates that Domtar has been receiving significant amounts of Canadian public funds while gaining corporate control over forests across the country without any clear public accountability,” wrote the authors of the report.
“The lack of transparency and the confusion around Domtar’s corporate structure remain severe issues in understanding its long-term intentions with Canadian forests and the implications for the forest industry.”
Domtar spokesperson Seth Kursman says the company adheres to Canada’s lobbying rules.
“We are compliant with lobby registries in all jurisdictions in which we operate,” Kursman said in a statement. “We adhere to the system, intent, spirit and letter of the law.”
Greenpeace is calling for any future government funding for the company to come with conditions — to uphold nature and diversity protection as well as Indigenous rights and reconciliation. The group says the conditions should include “funding objectives, specific performance indicators and public accountability mechanisms.”
Greenpeace also wants company owner Jackson Wijaya to appear before the House of Commons committee on natural resources to answer questions about the company’s ownership and its governance structure along with its long-term intentions and its potential impact on Canada’s forests and the forest industry.
The committee has twice adopted motions for Wijaya, a member of one of the wealthiest families in Indonesia, to appear before it. In response to the first motion in 2023, Wijaya said he was too busy to appear and instead sent a group of company executives.
The second, adopted unanimously by the committee in December 2024, died after Parliament was prorogued in January and later dissolved in March.
Committee clerk Jean-Luc Plourde says the current natural resources committee has not resumed the previous study of Canada’s pulp and paper industry, nor has it adopted a motion for Wijaya to appear before it.
The company says Wijaya is willing to testify before the committee.
Kursman said Domtar and Greenpeace resolved a long-standing litigation last year and “we look forward to working with a range of stakeholders towards the shared objective of sustainable forestry practices and healthy, well-managed forests.”
Greenpeace’s report is the latest move by the environmental group to delve into the actions of a company that it has accused of being secretive and of hiding behind an elaborate corporate paper trail that spans several countries.
Paper Excellence bought Domtar in 2021 and Resolute Forest Products in 2023 to become Canada’s largest pulp and paper company. In October 2024, Paper Excellence rebranded and adopted the name Domtar.
Greenpeace’s report says the company now manages 22 million hectares of forests across Canada, accounting for almost 10 per cent of all managed forest land across the country.
In 2023, Paper Excellence was the subject of a joint investigation by CBC News and a number of other media organizations working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
That investigation raised questions about the company’s ownership, financing and relationship with Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which has a track record of forest destruction in Indonesia that cost the company its accreditation from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). APP has been working with the FSC to restore its accreditation.
Over the years, Paper Excellence has maintained that it is completely separate from APP. However, in November 2024, Paper Excellence served notice to the European Commission Wijaya was acquiring “sole control” of APP from his father, Teguh Ganda Wijaya (also known as Oei Tjie Goan).
The committee’s unanimous second motion to call Wijaya to testify came shortly after that announcement.
“Asia Pulp and Paper has a notorious environmental track record,” then NDP MP Charlie Angus told the committee at the time.
“I don’t think anyone would have opened the door to Asia Pulp and Paper coming in, or the Wijaya family coming in, to take over Canadian forestry operations if it was known that they were Asia Pulp and Paper. So hence the creation of Paper Excellence as the Trojan horse to get into Canada.”
Kursman said Domtar and APP are separate companies.
“There is no executive overlap, and Domtar has its own governance structures and organization,” he said.
In its report on the company’s lobbying efforts across the country, Greenpeace found that the company’s main targets were MPs on the natural resources committee and MPs for ridings where its mills were located. While the Forest Products Association of Canada remained the most active forestry lobbying group, between 2020 and 2024, Domtar logged more meetings with federal officials and MPs than the Quebec Forest Industry Council and the Alberta Forest Products Association.
Greenpeace found that the company and its subsidiaries reported lobbying MPs or federal officials 64 times in 2023 and another 34 times in 2024.
Lobbying government officials is not illegal and the report, largely based on communications reports filed as part of Canada’s lobbying registration system, does not present evidence of the company violating the lobbying rules.
The Greenpeace report also details the company’s lobbying at the provincial level, pointing out that it has been particularly active in British Columbia where a number of its mills are located.
British Columbia is also the government that has contributed the most to the company’s coffers, often in a bid to encourage innovation, reduce pollution or keep mills open and save jobs.
The report says if pandemic funding is excluded, the company and its subsidiaries received at least $160 million in government funding between 2020 and 2024, 73.2 per cent of which came from provincial governments or provincial Crown corporations. Of the $117 million that came from provincial governments, over half came from the B.C government.
The report says the company has faced penalties for environmental violations and has closed mills in the province.
“Despite the B.C. government investing millions in Domtar operations, the company’s production footprint continues to shrink,” says the report. “This raises questions as to whether investments in Domtar’s work offers viable returns and benefits for Canadian taxpayers.”
Greenpeace says the company should tell Canadians more about how the money was spent.
“As Canada’s largest pulp and paper company and a beneficiary of public funding, Domtar requires a greater responsibility for accountability,” says the report. “Instead, its opaque corporate structure and lack of transparency raise questions and concerns regarding the company’s operations and use of public funds.”
Kursman said Canada’s lumber market is going through challenges due to duties and tariffs and governments have stepped up to help.
“We have received funding for various innovative projects,” he said. “Specific commercial terms are confidential but of course you can imagine the government is keen to keep jobs — as are we.”
In cases where the company has not been able to make an innovation project work, it has returned government funds, he said.
