On a gravel road next to the Trans-Canada road, New Brunswick Natural Minister John Herron looks at a long long one cut by the forest.
He sees poetry – national poetry, that is.
Herron expects one of the “national interest projects” proposed by New Brunswick to connect to an existing natural gas pipe that runs under that clear.
“This is a nation construction project that verifies each box,” says Herron.
The plan is to extend a gas line that now ends in the Quebec city towards New Brunswick to link with the maritime and the northeast pipe under the minister’s feet.
The line carries the alberta gas through the United States, or gas extracted in the United States, to the Atlantic of Canada.
But the extension of Quebec would omit the American territory completely, creating an All-Canadá route.
“Poetry is like this: you have Western Canada gas going to Ontario, through the province of Quebec, [by] Adding additional pipe from the city of Quebec to the Atlantic of Canada, “says the minister.
The houseDo you need more Canadian energy? Atlantic Canada has a plan for that
This week at the house of the house of the house: Atlantic Canada, the proposal of the Eastern Energy Association to Prime Minister Mark Carney includes an expansion of gas pipelines, a new nuclear reactor and thousands of wind turbines on the high seas. How feasible are these ‘construction of the nation’ projects? Let’s find out.
“That additional pipe, aspirationally speaking, would be made of ontarium steel … This is a solution made in Canada. This is the sovereignty of energy.”
The proposal is on the New Brunswick project list presented to the Mark Carney government for the regulatory approval issued under bill C-5, which was adopted in the law in June.
Carney underlined his own Canadian construction agenda again on Friday, after the deadline for a commercial agreement with the United States and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, raised tariffs on many Canadian exports.
“The Canadians will be our best client,” said Carney in a statement.
The Eastern Energy Association
The call of the Prime Minister for the proposals has aroused the interest of the provincial governments throughout the country, especially in the Atlantic of Canada, where ministers see a new opportunity to boost their economies and meet a growing demand for electricity.
Many of its proposals are under the label of the Eastern Energy Association, which foresees the four provinces of the Atlantic that generate more electricity and transmit it to each other, to Quebec and other buyers.
They range from the update of the underwater cable between Prince Edward Island and the new Brunswick Continlant, probably one of the fastest and fastest and simple projects, to a proposal of Nueva Scotia to build enough wind turbines on the high seas to generate a quarter of Canada’s electricity needs.
Winning the “National Interest Project” The designation makes defenders a faster regulatory review process, but does not guarantee federal financing.
Nor is it certain that Ottawa approves the projects of the Eastern Energy Association as a whole.
“I do not want the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” says the liberal deputy of Nueva Scotia Sean Fraser, the minister responsible for the Canadian Atlantic Opportunity Agency.
“I think we have an opportunity, and in fact an obligation, to move as quickly as possible in the components of the association that are ready,” he says.
Many of the projects face obstacles.
The C-5 bill has caused a skeptical reaction of some leaders of the first nations concerned that accelerated reviews will compromise their right to be consulted.
However, in New Brunswick, some bosses are open to treatment.
Pabineau First Nation chief, Terry Richardson, supports the proposals of the New Brunswick government, which include an expansion of nuclear energy generation in the province.
“I agree with that, because we need a solution. We need a base energy source and at this time we have none,” says Richardson.
“I mean, renewable energies are great, but what do you do when the wind does not blow, the sun does not shine and the water does not flow?”
The regional head of the assembly of the first nations, Joanna Bernard, says that many bands maintain an open mind, but will insist on capital bets on projects.
“In the past, it was ‘here are some scholarships’ or ‘here there is capacity for the capacity for their people to work in the pipe.’ Those days have gone,” said Bernard.
“We are going to have part of the company. We will be there on the ground, ensuring that environmental problems are of the highest priority. And the profits will be used for the first nations.”
Wind and nuclear energy
The West Wind Plan of the Prime Minister of New Scotland, Tim Houston, to develop thousands of turbines on the high seas and export electricity to other provinces could be a blessing for national efforts to decarbonize its energy sources, if it came to reality on that scale.
Scott Urquhart, the CEO born in Cape Breton of a winding company based in Copenhagen, says that the project is feasible, with the wind of Nueva Scotia as “almost better in the world.”
The Prime Minister of New Scotland, Tim Houston, has plans to license enough wind farms on the high seas to produce 40 Gigawatts of electricity, which could supply 27 percent of the total electricity demand in Canada. But what will be needed to get there? Tom Murphy of CBC spoke with Thomas Arnason McNeil of the Ecology Action Center.
But it can have a decade or more to turn the turbines, and a considerably higher cost than the $ 5 to 10 billion that the prime minister is predicting, according to Halifax Energy consultant, Heidi Leslie.
“The estimate is really low,” she says.
Wind energy prices in a recent bidding process in the United States were much higher than Ontario customers are now charged for their residential energy bills, says Leslie.
At that rate, “you are losing money in every kilowatt” of Wind West, she says.
“And the farther the place is using it, the more expensive it is, because it needs to build the transmission to obtain it there.”
New Brunswick and Nueva Scotia are doubling their transmission links, but “that certainly will not be enough to handle what is required,” says Larry Hughes, an energy expert from the University of Dalhouse in Halifax.
Look | Video ‘Wind West’ by New Scotland Prime Minister:
New Brunswick’s ambition to expand nuclear generation is also causing questions.
The existing nuclear power plant in the province, Point Lepreau, has been full of expensive problems since it began operating in 1983. It is responsible for a large part of the debt of $ 5 billion of the provincial energy services company.
More nuclear energy, whether a second large reactor in Point Lepreau or small modular reactors, will only join the financial burden, says David Coon, leader of the New Brunswick Green Party.
“It’s crazy,” says Coon.
“We all get nuclear energy bills with which no one is happy due to the extremely expensive cost of having a nuclear energy plant.”
Affectiveness of the mind
Brunswick’s prime minister, Susan Holt, says he understands.
Holt won a large majority last year after campaigning in affording problems, and already faced residents about their energy bills.
She hopes that the neighboring provinces share the expenses of more nuclear generation in exchange for part of the electricity that will occur.
“When I am trying to offer affordability for the new Brunswickers, I am looking at who is assuming the burden with us,” she says.
“How do we reduce the cost for New Brunswick taxpayers while we follow our clean energy and reliable energy goals?”
In addition to nuclear energy, New Brunswick’s electricity is generated through a combination of fossil, hydroelectric and, to a lesser extent, wind and biomass fuels.
Without its nuclear reactor without emissions, the province would need to burn four times more coal, which makes it even more difficult to reduce emissions, says Brady Coad, his vice president of business development.
Meanwhile, the largest hydroelectric dam in the province, Mactaquac, needs an important update that can cost up to $ 9 billion.
Lori Clark, the NB Power CEO, says there is a responsibility for the federal government to help pay the costs of decarbonizing the energy supply, instead of transmitting costs to customers.
“I really believe that the Federal Government also has a role to play in this. They have established Net Zero’s deadlines,” says Clark.
Herron is also seeking federal support, invoking the possibility of a government’s property participation in the extension of the natural gas line.
“I think there is the opportunity to eliminate the project if the project is initially owned and owned by the first nation,” he says.
That would accelerate the permits “and eliminate that investment for the private sector on a future date.”
Fraser would not commit to that, but the door did not close, citing the precedent of the acquisition of the federal government in 2018 of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project in British Columbia.
“More often, the correct result will be that we create the environment that will encourage investment, which will allow private companies to establish to succeed and use people in the region,” he adds.
“But we do not want to cancel the possibility that certain types of investments can be necessary for particular projects to be viable if we believe that long -term interests of Canadians will be served.”
