Irving--New Brunswick's Puppet Master

The Irving group of companies, while incorporating state of the art technology which helps to keep their edge in a competitive market, are notorious for being cheap with suppliers and are extremely demanding for their management and line workers.[citation needed] Organized labour is tolerated (and sometimes encouraged) so long as each company's profits and the family's objectives come first.

Irving has been known to run they're corporation pretty ruthlessly.

The Irvings have an almost complete monopoly in print media in New Brunswick, owning all English and French daily newspapers but one (L'Acadie Nouvelle) and most English weekly and community papers. In the 1970s, when this concentration was limited to only 4 English daily newspapers, a federal commission of inquiry into media concentration took aim at the Irving family's control. Today print media across Canada has experienced a much higher degree of concentration than existed with Irving in New Brunswick during the 1970s, and the case with Irving was one of the first in the nation. The Irving family ostensibly allows their media holdings to operate relatively independently with the only oversight supposedly being in their finances.

They own all but one of media outlets......

Many of the forest management practices at J.D. Irving have come under fire from environmentalists. While JDI has received praise from its lumber retailers and from government regulators, environmentalists point out that the company's tree farming practices have led to an unprecedented industrialization of the forests of northeastern North America, and in turn have led to a decline in tree species variety.[citation needed] Logging roads and erosion problems are also frequently criticized.

They are environmentally un-friendly ( Take a drive in Northern NB, you know what i mean)

The Irving family has long been identified politically with the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Brunswick Liberal Party—a tradition dating to K.C. Irving's father, James Dergavel Irving. It should be noted that the Irvings are extremely private in such matters, however, the ownership of so many industries in eastern Canada gives significant public influence to members of the Irving family. It is estimated that 1 in 10 New Brunswickers are employed by an Irving subsidiary, so it is as reasonable for governments to give tax and other concessions to the conglomerate as it is for the Irvings to work to remain friendly with the government of the day

And they're political affiliations are a bit....interesting.

Wiki-irving

Now i use to livei n a little town named Grand Falls in NW NB. We had an incident a few years ago where two teens were killed while operating they're four wheelers in Irving territory and fell into huge un-marked wholes in the middle of trails. The local paper reported this and the next week Irving had bought the paper.

Is Irving's attempt to control NB's media just a money grabbing thing. Or are they attempting the hide all of the non-moral things they've been doing while operating under our noses?

Thoughts?

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Is Irving's attempt to control NB's media just a money grabbing thing. Or are they attempting the hide all of the non-moral things they've been doing while operating under our noses?

Thoughts?

Money? Partially. It's about "power" with this family. They've owned NB for years and they aren't about to take any steps backward. If what this family has REALLY done been made public.......... it wouldn't matter. They are that powerful.

reply to post by intrepid


Funny how we have a little shadow government within our backwater/forgotten province eh?

Think about it. How much do you read in the papers that is negative of Irvings shady run Organizations. I can't remember the last. I know quite a few former Irving employees and let's just say it's not all good. They don't get rich by being nice guys.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Funny how we have a little shadow government within our backwater/forgotten province eh?

It's rampant in the Maritimes. Probably because of the smallish population. The McCain family owns PEI. Though relatively new the Sobey's family have been extremely aggressive in the last 15 years and are well entrenched in NS and have gone international. And if you know what's good for you don't challenge Michelin. Yeah, I know they are a French(France) company but they have a lot of pull in the provincial gov't. That's nothing compared to the influence that the Irving's have though.

McCain is a huge operation around the world , they also own Day & Ross and Samedayrightaway Couriers. They own quite a chunk of N.B.

Yup i agree with all of the above, we have a serious problem here follow NB'ers.....

And then there's our weak government who take a back seat to provinces like NS and NL. I don't understand we USED to be the richest province, until we built that darn railway and Ontario never paid back the favor.

Funny how we've forgotten that.

reply to post by intrepid


Completely true 'trep. They hold that over the province quite often as well.

These do do some good, as stated in the OP, they employ a good portion of New Brunswick's workforce but they are ruthless business people.

For example, the tax bill for the new LNG plant they just about finished building here is 500k. Not bad seeing as the actual tax should have been 5 million a year.

www.dominionpaper.ca...

At the time of the deal, McFarlane told council that the companies gave him a midnight deadline to make the secret deal, or the plant would not be built. Totten said the loss in property taxes would be offset by investment and employment opportunities at the facility.

They are also building a new oil refinery here with BP as a partner. They got a sweet deal on the Environmental Impact Study. They only had to pay for the portion that covered the bay where the tankers would be coming in. The rest of it, encompassing the entire area affected by the refinery, was picked up by the province.

They also managed to get a LNG pipeline built through the middle of the city and through one of Canada's largest urban parks. This was one attempt to stop the pipeline.

www.cbc.ca...

Lots of other shady stuff about these guys as well.

Our MP until the last election was married to one of the Irving girls for years. MR. Zed is now Michael Ignatief's interim Chief of Staff.

I grew up in New Brunswick in the 1960's. Our family moved into Champlain Heights prior to the construction of the you know what. (For any non-New Brunswickers reading this thread, a huge oil refinery was eventually built right over our back fence.)

When the paint started peeling off the house, my Dad, to howls of protest from us kids, who were all starting to form important friendships, decided that it was time to get the hell out of there, which we did. (Thanks Dad and sorry for the negativity.)

It's weird but New Brunswick had the same kind of feel that you see in the movies where some one-horse town in Hick's County, USA is controlled by Boss Hog's ugly brother. People don't actually all tug their forelocks at the mention of the great man's name but there is this persistent feeling that someone else has the checker game won before you even make your first move.

Many, many people just leave.

It's a beautiful place. I could write a lot of things about it. Haven't been there since 1983 or thereabouts.

Irving now has Natural Gas pipelines running under us and a massive LNG terminal out in the bay. If the terminal goes, the pipes go, and the refiinery goes. We'd all be dust!

They also drove us nuts with the pounding all summer breaking ground on their new International Headquarters, on a piece of prime real estate on the Saint John Harbour. They whined and complained and fought hard to get the right to build down there. They have abandoned that build since, and have left us with an eyesore on the port. Big steel columns poking out, welcoming the cruise ships that come on in, in a cold rusty way.

Don't let SJ get you down man. Come on back and see us. There have been some improvements... trust me.

And really, you don't have to be in the city. We have the nicest river in North America during the summer. Get on out to the Saint John River!

Zed is Chief of Staff!?

He sure knew who's coattail to hop on in his early years. Good for him. hahahaaaaa

Zed. The maaaster.