PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. -- A union official says workers at an idle Cape Breton paper mill are anxious to get back to work nearly a year after their plant shut down.
Yesterday, creditors accepted a settlement on what they're owed from NewPage Port Hawkesbury.
It's considered a critical step toward finalizing the sale of the mill.
Vancouver-based Pacific West Commercial has offered to buy the plant for 33-million dollars.
Spokesman Marc Dube says the company hopes to restart one of the mill's two papermaking machines next month.
He says about 300 workers would be employed at the mill -- about half of the original workforce.
Archie MacLachlan, a vice-president with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, says that will make the resumption of operations bittersweet.
The province's Utility and Review Board must still approve a complex agreement between Pacific West and Nova Scotia Power before the sale moves ahead.
