J. D. Irving

J.D. Irving, Limited traces its origins to a sawmill operated in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, by its namesake, James Dergavel Irving. Ownership of J.D. Irving's operations passed to his children, one of whom—Kenneth Colin Irving—assumed majority control and used JDI to expand into pulp and paper and other forestry-related businesses between the 1920s and 1940s.

In the post-war years, JDI acquired pulp mills in Saint John and upstate New York, as well as sawmills throughout New Brunswick. During the 1950s, JDI took control of a shipyard in Saint John and established several trucking and heavy industry companies, such as Irving Equipment, to meet the growing needs of its operations.

In the 1970s and 1980s, JDI expanded into trucking through its subsidiary, Scot Truck, based in Debert, Nova Scotia. Now known as Midland Transport and headquartered in Dieppe, New Brunswick, it is joined by sister companies Midland Courier (Dieppe), Sunbury Transport (Fredericton) and RST Industries (Saint John).

JDI is also a shipbuilder in Canada, owning shipyards in Halifax, Liverpool, and Shelburne, Nova Scotia, as well as in Georgetown, Prince Edward Island.

J.D. Irving, Limited operates through numerous subsidiaries and divisions. Notable current divisions include:

Irving Tissue Co. Ltd.

New Brunswick Railway Co. Ltd.

New Brunswick Southern Railway Co. Ltd.

Incidents

As a major regional industrial conglomerate, subsidiaries of JDI have been involved in several notable incidents:

In 1970, an oil barge named Irving Whale sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, causing periodic oil spills until it was raised by the federal government in 1996.

In 2007, the Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd. mill at Reversing Falls accidentally released 680,000 litres of green liquor into the Saint John River. The company pleaded guilty and was fined $50,000. In November 2008, Environment Canada investigators exercised a search warrant at Irving Pulp & Paper's head office to gather further information about the spill.

In November 2008, JDI Logistics and Atlantic Towing made headlines following an accident involving the transport of two new turbines from Saint John Harbour to the nearby Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station. The subsidiaries had been subcontracted by Siemens AG—the turbine replacement subcontractor for NB Power, the facility's owner. The turbines, manufactured in Scotland, were shipped to Saint John aboard a cargo vessel on a road transport vehicle. During offloading onto a barge owned by Atlantic Towing Ltd., the cargo shifted, causing the barge to capsize and sending both the turbines and the transport vehicle into Saint John Harbour.

Later that month, the Atlantic Towing Ltd. dredging barge Shovel Master was being towed by the company's tugboat Atlantic Larch from Saint John to Halifax for a refit when it foundered in heavy seas 20 nmi (37 km) west of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The three crew members were rescued by a CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopter before the barge capsized. Several Atlantic Towing tugboats and commercial divers responded; the tug Atlantic Oak secured a tow line to the capsized (but still floating) barge. The barge was towed 45 nmi (83 km) south of Yarmouth but ultimately sank in 150 m (490 ft) of water, carrying 70,000 L (18,000 US gal) of diesel fuel, 1,000 L (260 US gal) of hydraulic fluid, and 5,000 L (1,300 US gal) of waste oil.

Controversies

JDI’s ownership of most major media outlets in New Brunswick has sparked ongoing concerns about media concentration. A 2006 Canadian Senate report on media ownership singled out New Brunswick due to Irving's control of all English-language daily newspapers in the province, including the Telegraph-Journal. Senator Joan Fraser, the report's author, stated: "We didn't find anywhere else in the developed world a situation like the situation in New Brunswick." The report further noted that "the Irvings' corporate interests form an industrial-media complex that dominates the province" to a degree "unique in developed countries." During Senate hearings, journalists and academics cited a lack of critical reporting on the Irving family's businesses in Irving-owned newspapers.