CANADA (From news reports) -- Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton says government officials are "actively monitoring" the process for the sell-off of Northern Pulp's assets, but no decisions have been made about whether the province will get in on the bidding.

Regardless, Rushton said he thinks the timberlands on the auction block have been "active forestry lands for the sector for many years and they should continue to be" used as such.

Last month, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge approved a process that will see assets of the shuttered pulp mill in Pictou County sold off in order to settle debts as part of the company's creditor protection process.

The primary assets are timberlands owned by the company, as well as a nursery. There is precedent for the province buying such land. In 2012, the NDP government bought land in western Nova Scotia from Bowater before the Queens County-based mill eventually shut down.

Although court documents in the Northern Pulp matter indicate there could also be an opportunity for the successful bidder to negotiate for the Crown land leases the company has managed, Rushton said the leases will not be automatically transferred as part of the auction process.

"The Crown land lease is not for sale, so that narrative can stop right now," he said, adding that government officials would make decisions about allocations and management when the creditor protection process wraps up. For now, Northern Pulp continues to manage the leases.

"There's an expectation from the sector and there's an expectation from Nova Scotians that these lands are managed in a responsible way," said Rushton.

"What level and size that may look like in the future -- we're having ongoing conversations and weighing all options that we have at hand."

One of the reasons Rushton is taking a way-and-see approach to how any future leases look is because he expects there will continue to be demand for the wood.

Although officials with Northern Pulp's parent company, Paper Excellence, announced in July that they would not proceed with potential plans to construct a new operation in Liverpool, Rushton said he is "very confident that there will be something here for the forestry sector in the future."

That could be a new mill, or it could be some other type of operation that requires wood fibre, he said.

"There's a vibrant forestry sector here," said Rushton. "There have been many people sitting back waiting to hear what ... decisions were going to be made by Northern Pulp."

Ray Plourde, senior wilderness co-ordination at the Ecology Action Centre, said the situation presents a chance for the government to set aside more land to help achieve its legislated target of protecting 20 per cent of Nova Scotia's total land and water mass by 2030.

Currently the government has only protected 13.75 per cent of the province. Plourde said with Northern Pulp permanently closed, there is more than enough wood available to meet the needs of existing saw mills and the Port Hawkesbury Paper mill while also making progress on its conservation goal.

"The government should find it easier than ever to select areas of Crown land for protection as well as providing wood supply to the industry, and they should get on with rationalizing those two things," he said.

Along with determining whether it will participate in the asset auction, the provincial government is also facing a major cleanup bill related to the mill site at Abercrombie Point, an area that was also once home to a chemical plant.

Although revenue generated from the asset sale is supposed to include $15 million toward a cleanup plan, that item is last in line for how proceeds are supposed to be distributed, and court papers make clear that there is no guarantee there will be anything left to go toward the effort after other bills are paid.

Environment Minister Tim Halman refused an interview request on the matter.

Mill site cleanup costs loom

A spokesperson for his department said officials are reviewing a closure plan the company was required to submit to the government.

Plourde said taxpayers are already responsible for the cleanup costs associated with Boat Harbour, the former tidal estuary that became the mill's effluent treatment lagoon. Recent estimates peg the cost for that effort at $425 million.

Plourde said whatever the company puts toward cleanup costs for the mill site -- if anything at all -- is unlikely to come close to the final bill.

"It's heavily polluted," he said, "and that will be shouldered by the taxpayer as the company leaves town scot-free."