THUNDER BAY – A project to bring liquefied natural gas to five Lake Superior north shore communities that was championed by the riding's Liberal MPP is being backed by the Progressive Conservative provincial government.
The province on Friday morning announced a $27 million contribution to build a liquefied natural gas plant about 20 kilometres north of Nipigon on Highway 11, which would supply natural gas to Marathon, Schreiber, Terrace Bay, Manitouwadge and Wawa.
The plant, which would be connected to the TransCanada pipeline, cools the natural gas to – 162C to convert it to a liquid state. The liquefied natural gas can then be trucked across the region to the communities, which would each have a depot to convert it back to gas to be distributed through their local network.
Infrastructure minister Monte McNaughton, who made the announcement in Thunder Bay, said 5,000 homes and 550 businesses could be serviced by natural gas and lead to the creation of between 700 and 2,800 jobs.
“Moving forward we’re going to be making strategic investments. It’s about making the right investment at the right time in the right place,” McNaughton said.
“This $27 million is exactly that right infrastructure investment. We’re talking about lowering energy costs and creating jobs, allowing businesses to expand in Northern Ontario.”
The project is being led by Northeast Midstream, an Ontario-based energy partnership.
Joshua Samuel, president and chief executive officer of the general partner of Northeast Midstream, said the project required a significant amount of effort from the public, First Nations, municipalities and the province.
“Once you get a lower cost energy into the communities and the industries, it’s a virtuous circle in terms of lowering energy costs, improving economic development, sustaining current jobs, building new economic development, providing a platform for other communities and other industry to grow,” Samuel said.
“It all starts with access to safe, affordable, reliable, economically efficient energy.”
Construction of the plant, which has a total estimated cost of $54 million, is expected to start in 2020.
The announcement also includes an additional $3.4 million through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation for the five communities to undertake the planning process and to secure permits, regulatory approvals and licencing requirements.
“We need to create opportunities across the province, not just in Toronto,” McNaughton said. “We need to create advantages for businesses in the north, in the southwest and in rural and remote communities and First Nations communities. This is life changing for families in Northern Ontario and those businesses.”
For the average residential customer using electrical heat, they would see savings of more than $2,300 per year. Existing propane residential users would save more than $1,000 and fuel oil residential users would save more than $800.
Terrace Bay mayor Jody Davis said there are some people in his community who are currently faced with bills of $1,000 per month in the winter to heat their homes.
“It’s a very big impact for heating your homes and for the opportunity for businesses to get better and be more competitive,” Davis said. “It’s great for all of the communities. It’s great for the First Nations.”
Thunder Bay-Superior North Liberal MPP Michael Gravelle, who attended the funding announcement at McNaughton’s invitation, had been working on the project for the last five years. Extending the existing pipeline was found to be too costly, Gravelle said, but liquefied natural gas proved to make more sense.
“It took a long time for it to come together but it was always based on the fact that energy costs and electricity costs are so much higher in those parts of the province and that part of my riding,” Gravelle said.
“It’s a tremendous project.”
