A meeting of local green minds took place Wednesday evening at the Prince Arthur Hotel with the hope that they will one day meet in a green building all their own.
Lake Superior Discovery Place is a green building still in the conceptual stages that would house a discovery centre, tourism offices, a restaurant, meeting hall and cruise ship welcome centre all under one sustainable roof. The dream, said LSDP president is to have the building meet a platinum LEED standard. The building would be unique because it would be the best in green technology in the region added Fralick. She said the group has already completed a feasible business plan and is now ready to get partners on board. LSDP already has a letter of intent with Waabi-ma’iingan Traditional teaching Lodge, also known as Grey Wolf.
" We feel it’s at a point now where we could start inviting in potential partners," said Fralick.
Ideally, Fralick said the group wants the building to go on the former Pool 6 site. She said they are waiting for city approval with more information expected back from city officials by March.
" The big hurdle right now is this is damaged industrial land so no matter who goes on it you have to get through the environmental assessment," Fralick said.
Members of Lake Superior Discovery Place used their third annual general meeting to celebrate the progress that’s been made over the past five years but also hosted a green tradeshow. Fralick said the goal of Wednesday’s meeting was to meet and discuss green building technology.
Dave Green of Maier Hardware had one of 12 booths at the trade show. He said although Maier has been involved with solar energy for the last 15 years, it was mainly dealing with camps and cottages until a few years ago. Now that the provincial government has finalized its Feed in Tariff program, Green said people are showing interest in the solar capabilities has to offer.
The FIT program is a government initiative where a home owner produces solar energy and sells their surplus back to the Ontario Power Authority for 80.2 cents per kilowatt. Green said the $ 70,000 system Maier sells would see a 15 per cent return on investment every year to the homeowner. He said since the rules of how the program would work were only released last fall, no one in Thunder Bay had purchased a system yet.
" It was impossible to really put one up prior to the rules of the contract being finalized. People wouldn’t really know what they were getting into but they were very interested," said Green. " We’re hoping by this Spring will be where it starts to work… the FIT program is limited by what the government will let happen."
