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Reports on the soaring cost of paper prices in Canada. Increasingly bitter struggle between cash-strapped publishers and the pulp-and-paper industry that supplies them; Impact of rising paper prices on readers; Decline in number of trees to be harvested; No sign of any newsprint supplies emerging to relieve the pressure on publishers.

Surveys the recent strike by 12,000 members of the Canadian Paperworkers Union and the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada after ten months of negotiations and an eleventh-hour session with a mediator. Closure of 19 pulp-and-paper mills in British Columbia; Union rejection of the companies' offer; Statistics of the B.C. forestry industry from Price Waterhouse; Impact of the strike on service industries; Comments from contract negotiator Mitterndorfer.

Offers information about Cascades Inc., a paper company that supports paper recycling programs in Kingsey Falls, Quebec.

This article focuses on the news that a pulp mill was going bankrupt and how it would affect the community. Even though I work in New Brunswick--not exactly crime central in Canada--we've had our share of murderers, pedophiles and pot-carrying premiers. Since the province's economy is largely based on natural resources, I've edited my fair share of boom-and-bust stories from here and elsewhere. Stories about disgruntled forestry workers in northern New Brunswick replaced by mechanical harvesters and stories about angry protests over the closure of the cod fishery in Newfoundland. Along with the 400 direct jobs, economists predicted at least another 200 indirect jobs would shortly disappear. I envisioned people sitting at their kitchen tables, crunching numbers: the mortgage, car payment, groceries, electricity, Christmas presents, kids' clothing.

Presents Canadian business news for December 7, 1998. SkyDome Corp.'s filing for court protection from its creditors; The resignation of two directors from the board of Livent Inc., the Toronto-based live theater company that has filed for bankruptcy protection; United States employment growth compared to Canada's between 1889 and 1997; Provincial securities administrators as close to reaching an agreement on a national system of securities; New York-based International Paper to purchase Union Camp Corp.

Reports a tentative agreement between St. Laurent Paperboard of Montreal, Quebec and Chesapeake Corp. of Virginia. St. Laurent's intent to purchase five United States pulp, paper, and cardboard mills.

Says the month-long strike that shut down most of the B.C. pulp-and-paper industry ended when the mills agreed to drop demands to abolish a floating holiday. The new contract includes a base wage increase of 6.5 percent over two years.

Reports that Canadian forestry giant Abitibi-Consolidated will return to work in December of 1998 after a five month strike by the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union. How the company hopes to regain customers; Percentage of the North American newsprint production that Abitibi-Consolidated was responsible for before the strike; What the union was able to get from the company.