New Brunswick is confident that its textile industry will eventually be able to sustain itself, but not yet, so the province is weaving another $3.4 million into a northern yarn plant.

"We obviously need to stabilize the industry and maintain the jobs, and it is a significant employer in the north of the province," Business Minister Greg Byrne said on Thursday.

The province advanced loans totalling $3.4 million last month to Atlantic Yarns of Atholville. That money includes a 10-year loan of $1 million for a waste recovery system and a $2.4 million for four years to help operate the company.

The Atholville plant has been relying on government money for almost a decade now, having already been granted or lent $33 million. The mill went up in 1998, its first provincial help coming in the form of a $6 million business loan and $245,000 training grant from the province.

A sister company, Atlantic Fine Yarns, has been helped to the tune of about $40 million.

Business Minister Greg Byrne said the companies will be better able to succeed if Canada signs free trade agreements with countries in Central America.

Free trade talks are in the works with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Those deals could eliminate tariffs of 15 per cent that companies like Atlantic Yarns must pay if they sell products in those countries.