The Ontario government has given the official green light to begin converting the Atikokan Generating Station from burning coal to biomass.
The Ontario Power Authority has been directed by the government to negotiate an agreement to buy biomass power generated at Atikokan from Ontario Power Generation, the plant's owners.
The conversion will create as many as 200 construction jobs and will support 20 to 25 jobs at an Ontario pellet facility, helping to sustain jobs in the forestry sector.
The plant employs 90 people. The three-year conversion process is designed to meet the McGuinty's government long-standing commitment to be off coal by 2014.
In an Aug. 26 statement, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro said the announcement marks the end of six years of effort to keep the northwestern Ontario power plant running. Besides providing construction jobs and protecting existing plant jobs, “this will spur on a new industry that will create more jobs and we've secured a large part of the municipal tax base.”
“This is splendid news for Atikokan,” said Mayor Dennis Brown.“We are grateful to Bill Mauro, our MPP; the Minister of Energy, Brad Duguid, and the entire McGuinty government for this great announcement.”
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