Editing Domtar (section)

===Origins in Britain===
In 1848, Henry Potter Burt founded Burt, Boulton Holdings Ltd. in [[England]], a company that specialized in treating timber against rot from moisture. The company used substances, such as [[creosote]] derived from [[coal tar]], to prolong lumber's useful life, supplying railway ties and pilings for wharves and foundations throughout Europe and the [[British Empire]]. Within eleven years Burt, Boulton was exporting to North America and acquired a sawmill in [[Quebec]]'s [[Eastern Townships]].

In the coal-intensive environment of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was an ever-increasing source of coal tar, and a demand for treated wood. Growth continued for Burt, Boulton Holdings Ltd. and led to the founding of a new company on February 4, 1903. It was called the Dominion Tar and Chemical Company, Limited. Dominion Tar's first plant was located in [[Sydney, Nova Scotia|Sydney]], [[Nova Scotia]], and began operations just eight months later.

In 1910, the company obtained two major contracts. The first, from the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]], was to treat railway ties, and the second, with the Lake Superior Iron & Steel Company (a predecessor of [[Algoma Steel]]), was to process tar produced from the coke ovens at its [[Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario]] mill. This required the financing of two new plants at opposite ends of Eastern Canada. Burt, Boulton retained the majority of shares in the company but took on Senator [[John Stewart McLennan|John S. McLennan]] from Nova Scotia and Drummond, McCall & Co. of Montreal as the corporation's first Canadian shareholders.

When the [[First World War]] broke out in 1914, Dominion Tar established its head office in [[Montreal]], Canada.