Hon. Blaine Higgs, Premier
Province of New Brunswick
Chancery Place, P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1
Via email: blaine.higgs@gnb.ca
Dear Premier Higgs:
Re: Proposed Maritime Iron Plant
We are writing to you as chambers of commerce from across the province on behalf of our member businesses and organizations to encourage you and your government to re-examine the Maritime Iron / Belledune proposal that NB Power walked away from on 5 June 2020.
It’s clear from NB Power CEO Keith Cronkite’s comments on 8 June 2020 that this decision was made from a solely NB Power-centric perspective – in our opinion this decision should be made from a Government of New Brunswick-centric perspective.
Your quote the following day published by the CBC that “NB Power has done a very thorough analysis and came up with their decision” confirmed a hands-off approach by your government. We were collectively surprised by NB Power’s sudden announcement as well as your position to defer a decision with such far-reaching economic development consequences to the utility, which does not currently have an economic growth mandate, as we learned at EUB hearings in February 2020.
As business representatives we have a deep understanding of the importance of fiscal responsibility. Indeed, we have praised your government many times for your fiscal stewardship and understand New Brunswick’s financial position. Putting debt reduction “first and foremost” at the top of the utility’s priorities through Minister Holland’s mandate letter should not mean to the exclusion of economic development opportunities and investments – certainly not now as we try to rebuild our economy in the COVID-19 era. Economic development should be embedded into the DNA of the whole of government.
We need to make bold decisions, innovate and take chances if we ever truly want to be a prosperous province. The path of belt tightening and a zealous adherence to ideological policy positions will lead us back to the old normal – at best. With New Brunswick’s current debt level, population demographics, economic outlook and the nature of the equalization system, tight fiscal stewardship alone will not lead to a prosperous New Brunswick in our children’s lifetimes. The financial trajectory that the province was on pre-COVID-19 was moving in a positive direction (albeit if driven by increased transfer payments), which could have allowed new investments to propel the economy forward and build momentum.
We still need that attitude – perhaps now more than ever. We must be able to stand on our own two feet and perhaps most concerning issue is the creeping sense of complacency seeping back into our public discourse and decision-making. New Brunswick has developed a culture of “no” and this decision (and the manner in which it was made and communicated) is a further example of a province that should be desperate for investment turning up its nose at another $1.5 billion.
Two of the province’s leading public-policy economists, David Campbell and Herb Emery have recently written commentaries in relation to the proposals demise with this theme – another opportunity is slipping though New Brunswick’s fingers, and no one seems to care.
New Brunswick’s chambers of commerce care. The project has potential – let’s stop looking for reasons to say no and start looking for reasons to say yes.
Mr Campbell’s article (Attached as Appendix A) asks the reader to not only care, but also to look at the bigger picture:
“…while NB Power is worried about the impact on taxpayers, although it was quite vague on this point, no one over there seems to mind the tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue from the Brunswick Smelter in the coming years. How will that revenue be replaced? How about a pig iron plant?”
In 2014, Mr Campbell produced a document for the Government of New Brunswick, Potential New Brunswick Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resource Investment Review. It examined the proposed Energy East Pipeline; the Canaport Energy East Marine Terminal; the potential for shale gas development; the conversion of the Canaport Liquid Natural Gas terminal into an export facility; and the Sisson Brook tungsten and molybdenum mine project.
“The report shows the potential of $8.6 billion worth of investments in energy and mining infrastructure from 2015 to 2020,” said Campbell. “All of these projects could boost nominal gross domestic product by an average of three per cent yearly. This could be the big boost needed to offset the economic fiscal challenges we are currently facing.”
$8.6 billion over the past five years – never happened. What if even one of these projects went ahead? How many times can we say ‘no’ before investors stop asking?
Dr Emery’s commentary from last week (attached as Appendix B) goes even further with a more extensive list of projects that never materialized – he calculates that the province has passed up $40 billion in investment since 2006. His thesis is that New Brunswick doesn’t have an investment attraction problem – our issues lie in a failure to close deals.
Dr Emery also points out that the benefits of such investment extend well beyond GDP growth, including our most fundamental challenge – population and workforce growth – calculating that the increased labour demand could have grown our population to 850,000 by 2020.
Notably, all of these potential investments were in the pre-COVID-19 era. Attracting investment is about to get harder. The recovery period will go on for many years, during which time we can expect the opportunities to shrink and our challenges to grow. Irving Oil – an anchor employer in the province announced 250 COVID-19-related layoffs earlier this month. This should be a sign of the seriousness of the current economic climate. In short, all of the same deeply-rooted issues exist in New Brunswick now as they did five months ago – but they are now exacerbated.
Finally, we implore you to read a recent article published by former Belledune Plant Manager, Sheldon Hovey on 24 June 2020, which provides a unique perspective and a more complete examination of the complexities involved in the proposal – including the impacts on climate and our carbon reduction targets.
Mr Hovey writes: “As Belledune’s manager, I became very familiar with the technical aspects of Maritime Iron. I believe that integrating Belledune with Maritime Iron’s facility is a rare opportunity to grow New Brunswick’s economy and provide some stability to the north. There has been little detail in the media about the benefits of Maritime Iron and I feel I need to fill that void.”
The full article is attached as Appendix C.
While we appreciate that you and your government are dealing with a host of serious and novel issues currently, it is important to understand that this is also one of them. We would be pleased to speak with you further about our position at your convenience. Thank you for your attention and your continued leadership throughout the pandemic.
Appendix A
Maritime Iron: I Was Going To Be Outraged… Then I Just Shrugged
When I heard that Maritime Iron was putting its $1.5 billion iron processing plant project on hold, I searched the news sites and social media for signs of outrage. After all, it’s not every day someone proposes a $1.5 billion – 30-40 year development project for Belledune. I certainly didn’t cover the waterfront but after 15-20 minutes I found no outrage. Hardly even a whimper.
I decided to write a column expressing my outrage. Not necessarily at the project’s demise but at the apathy across the board about this project. I was going to talk in this column about how communities across the United States were stumbling over for Tesla’s $1.1 billion plant. The winning jurisdiction is likely to offer somewhere close to $1 billion in incentives.
I might have remarked in this column that people have been skeptical of this project since Day 1. Why would anyone want to put $1.5 billion into Belledune? Never mind the area is ideal for the project because of its proximity to the iron ore (Quebec), its need for a good port (Belledune) and its use of coal and that its markets will be North America – displacing product from Asia.
I was going to talk about how the product to be produced in Belledune is critical to the functioning of the economy including the new Tesla plant. Yes. Telsa has decided to use even more steel in its newer models. Imagine a New Brunswick community playing a key role in the North American supply chain for steel products.
Just to convey my annoyance, I would have particularly zoomed in on this little blurb from the CBC story from the environmental impact technical committee report: “It fails to note more than 100 daily truck trips to and from the site will “likely result” in air quality problems beyond Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards.”
Within 10 minutes of my house I can show you a dozen warehouses in Moncton/Dieppe that handle more than 100 daily trucks. We now live in a world where 100 daily truck trips to and from and industrial facility is considered a problem.
I might have remarked that while NB Power is worried about the impact on taxpayers, although it was quite vague on this point, no one over there seems to mind the tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue from the Brunswick Smelter in the coming years. How will that revenue be replaced? How about a pig iron plant? The lost revenue and stranded debt associated with Belledune? Nary a mention.
I would have probably remarked the carbon emissions from this activity will occur. Pig iron needs to be processed. Tesla and thousands of other manufactured goods need the steel. Your life revolves around steel. The carbon emissions from this activity will occur – just not here and neither will the hundreds of good paying jobs in the plant and supply chain.
I’ve heard politicians bragging about New Brunswick’s reduction in carbon emissions. They are less quick to tell people this has come by closing industrial plants and from among the weakest economic growth among the 60 U.S. states and Canadian provinces since 2008. I might have snarkily remarked the best way to reduce your carbon emissions is to shut down your province.
If New Brunswick becomes the nursing home for North America over the next 10-20 years, our carbon footprint will be nice and low.
If I was particularly cranky while writing the column, I might have remarked that instead of Belledune re-emerging as a key player in the North American supply chain for steel products, it will continue to wither away.
Not one for hyperbole, I still would have likely indicated that I hope we are not as cavalier about the 20,000+ jobs in New Brunswick we just figured out – as a result of Covid-19 – that can be done anywhere. The thousands and thousands of New Brunswickers who earn their livelihood supporting people with roadside assistance, insurance claim processing, mortgage applications, IT support, hotel reservations, airline reservations and telehealth now face competition from home-based workers across the world. Our computer programmers, graphic designers and just about every other kind of professional services worker too just realized the exposed brick and beam, high ceiling office with a beer fridge and pool table may not be needed any more.
I would have said I hope New Brunswick government and economic development officials are laying awake at night trying to dream up ways to make this province the ideal location for that type of work. Otherwise it will drain away over the next 5-10 years at a slow drip. I know its a lose connection between Maritime Iron and knowledge workers but I can’t help thinking somewhere in the back of my mind if you won’t stand up for one…..
I might have mentioned my concern that New Brunswick will never see another large industrial or mining project again. We have manufactured a political climate where there is almost no tolerance for it. Imagine, 100 trucks per day.
I fear it will be more like that scene in Casablana where Ugarte is arrested and taken off to be interrogated and then killed. Another anonymous guy in a white linen suit sidles up to Rick and says “when they come for me, I hope you will be more help” to which Rick says “I stick my neck out for nobody”. While other jurisdictions are bending over backwards to develop large industrial projects like the LNG export facility and associated natural gas development in British Columbia – New Brunswick just won’t have the stomach for it.
Everybody talks about Frank McKenna.
It is absolutely incredible – even farcical – that more than 20 years after his exit from New Brunswick politics – I hear his name on a weekly basis. Only now it is young people – hardly born at the time- repeating the McKenna stories with reverence they way someone might talk about Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth.
But, deep down, everyone knows McKenna would have been hustling – even now – to get that project done in Belledune. For those of you old enough to remember, think about who rammed through the Belledune electricity generation facility itself?
Maritime Iron is an industrial process requiring massive amounts of energy but I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t have occurred in New Brunswick with the most up to date environmental protocols and processes. But when we are at the point where 100 trucks coming in and out of the site is stated concern, what else is there to be said?
I guess the 100 cars coming in and out of the nursing homes is not a problem for ambient air quality standards.
But after reading about this project and realizing that no one else is concerned, I guess I decided to follow the crowd.
So I shrugged it off, gave up on writing the column and went back to binge watching NetFlix.
American Factory, to be specific.
Appendix B
Why do we keep driving away prosperity?
The $1.5 billion Maritime Iron project proposed for Belledune is hanging on by its fingernails and as economist David Campbell recently observed, no one seems to care. The perception of New Brunswick to outsiders is that is a province that struggles to attract investment which is why some of us who are “from away” were surprised that Maritime Iron hasn’t generated more interest from New Brunswickers.
Then I saw a list compiled by David Campbell which gave me a different perspective on what is happening. Since 2006, the province has passed on around $40 billion in investment proposed for the sectors that have been New Brunswick’s post World War II strengths. Maritime Iron is just the latest $1.5 billion in investment we are prepared to let go. Slow growth in New Brunswick over the past decade is not because investors weren’t looking at the province. Much of the investment that did not come to pass here did take place in some form somewhere else.
New Brunswick does not struggle to attract the interest of investors. David Campbell’s “list of the dead” included a second oil refinery in Saint John, a second nuclear plant at Lepreau, shale gas development, oil and natural gas export terminals, the Energy East pipeline, and potash and tungsten mines. His list did not include the failed sale of NB power which would have shed the billions of dollars in debt and liabilities we are struggling with today. The list did not include the investment opportunities at risk in the province including the Maritime Iron, the SmartGrid Energy initiative, Cybersecurity opportunities and the Small Modular Nuclear Reactor industrial opportunity. The list does not include mines and industrial operations that have shutdown like the Glencore smelter and the Trevali mine. I am sure that readers can think of other examples that can be added to the list.
New Brunswickers seem to have short memories when it comes to the economy which is probably a good thing when you start to think about the scale of the missed investment opportunities given the fiscal and demographic challenges we now face. New Brunswickers believe their economic struggles reflect fate driven by external forces which justifies a collective learned helplessness, or hopelessness, about the economy. It supports a narrative that we always need even more federal cash to make ends meet because we are not responsible for our economic circumstances. This is strange narrative when you really think about how much investment coming to the province has been pushed away by politics, protest and indifference.
How big is $40 billion in private sector investment for New Brunswick? Our annual GDP is only $30 billion so I would say it’s pretty big. If the province had seen all $40 billion of these projects come to fruition, or even the $15 billion in investment proposed since 2010, then our post 2007 GDP growth would have been closer to the national growth rate over 2 percent annually instead of no growth. In a typical year before 2010, New Brunswick had at least $3 billion in annual private sector investment. Since that time, the province has been closer to $2 billion per year with some recent upticks to $3 billion. What “could have been” with the investment projects proposed in the province since 2010 is investment growing from $3 billion per year to $4.5 billion today. That translates to between 1 percent and 1.5 percent GDP growth per year over what we had for the decade. Guess what? That would be enough for the province to reach the Premier’s growth target of 2 percent per year since 2010 with projects that were here.
But that’s only the direct effect of investment on GDP growth. By increasing labour demand, that additional investment would have spurred population growth to around 850,000 in 2020 through reduced outmigration of young New Brunswickers and the attraction and retention of immigrants. Investment would have maintained the pre-2008 growth in labour productivity closer to Ontario levels rather than the Nova Scotia level to which we have sunk. Higher labour productivity would have increased employment incomes and tax revenues. I am not sure that the higher GDP growth would have reduced the size of the public debt since the province has proven incapable of restraining public sector spending when revenues grow or when they do not grow. So public sector workers would at least be better paid that we are today.
Without the $40 billion in investment the province achieved the federal climate goal of 30 percent lower Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions than in 2005. De-industrialization has been a big source of reduction of our GHG Emissions from 20 megatonnes in 2005 to 14.3 megatonnes in 2017. The Maritime Iron project proponents may not have understood how much New Brunswickers value lower emissions in the province when they looked at this province as a place to produce. To see how much we value lower local emissions, then consider that if we had the GDP growth rate from the $15 billion in the proposed investment projects since 2010, then we would have had $3 billion more in annual GDP in 2020. If we count this foregone GDP as the price we have paid for lower emissions then New Brunswick has annually paid around $500 per tonne for the carbon no longer emitted. And we were worried about an 11 cents per litre tax on gasoline from a $50 per tonne carbon price?
While it is not clear that the province would have seen all of the proposed projects come to fruition, even getting some of them would have changed the post-2010 growth and fiscal position of the province today. Many of our strongest and largest manufacturers with roots in our traditional resource sectors have been investing in their operations for the last decade but the expansions are in other provinces and countries. While Saint John did not get a second oil refinery, the oil export terminal or the Energy east pipeline, Irving Oil has acquired two refineries that are not in New Brunswick and has Canadian oil coming from the west coast to Saint John by ship through the Panama Canal.
This is important context for those who are seeking to pivot, or transform, the New Brunswick society into something different. When I moved here in 2016, I often heard statements that traditional resource based industries were holding the province back from moving to a different economy that would be richer, more equal, less volatile and sustainable. I think what most New Brunswickers are missing is that the traditional industries that they dislike so much of late aren’t doing anything to harm them. If anything New Brunswickers have chosen to harm those industries believing something better would emerge. And, no growth is preferred to the wrong kind of growth. After 15 years of restraining the province’s traditional strength, we do have a more equal and less volatile economy but we are not richer nor is what we currently have materially likely sustainable.
I expect that my even mentioning that list of dead investment projects will draw strong negative reactions as many of my commentaries about the potential for the province to grow its GDP have. As you can see from the list above, most of these projects involved mining, energy, transportation and heavy industry like the proposed Maritime Iron project. Many vocal influencers in New Brunswickers have declared these investments as targeted at “sunset industries” that will be gone soon or simply what they declare to be the wrong industries on which to build a better New Brunswick. Once projects or issues are killed or pushed into other places, so long as we don’t speak kindly of the dead or impolitely assign responsibility to those who worked to drive the investment projects away, New Brunswickers seem to move on quickly.
This commentary is not about the relative merits of the dead projects, nor is it about attempting to revive them. The importance of David Campbell’s list of the dead is that it helps us understand what problem we think we as a society need to solve. It is clearly not investment attraction if the province wants to build from its traditional strength to grow the economy and the population. It is also unlikely that incompetence of government explains serial failure to land the investments since the governments have changed often and the investment outcomes did not.
Given the lack of government effort in New Brunswick toward resolving issues like social license, restoring historic regulatory strengths in mining and resources, improving transportation infrastructure to get goods to market, ensuring secure and predictably priced energy, developing a workforce for the economic opportunities we have, I am comfortable declaring the “anti-growthers” as the victors in terms of choosing the economic path for New Brunswick. Politically, it has been easier to drive away $40 billion in investment than to seek the social license and the political support needed to allow the investment and growth to happen.
Appendix C
Maritime Iron: A Retired Belledune Plant Manager’s Perspective
June 24, 2020 Sheldon Hovey
My name is Sheldon Hovey and I retired from NB Power in 2019. I was fortunate to have been an employee of the Belledune coal-fired Generating Station since it went into commercial operation. Eventually I served as Belledune’s Station Manager for 10 plus years.
I am very disappointed that NB Power and our Provincial Government have pulled out of the Maritime Iron project… dismissing a $1.5 billion investment in our province. I know first hand the impact this news has on the Chaleur Region. I have watched multiple large industries become obsolete and shut down since calling Bathurst my home 27 years ago. The Belledune Generating Station will be the next large industrial facility to go.
As Belledune’s manager, I became very familiar with the technical aspects of Maritime Iron. I believe that integrating Belledune with Maritime Iron’s facility is a rare opportunity to grow New Brunswick’s economy and provide some stability to the north. There has been little detail in the media about the benefits of Maritime Iron and I feel I need to fill that void. Firstly though, I’d like to provide some background on the Belledune Generating Station.
Belledune GS
Canada’s coal fired electricity regulation SOR/2012-167 will make the operation of the Belledune Generating Station on coal illegal beginning Jan 1st, 2030. While not my favorite regulation, it is easy to see why this a good strategy for Canada. Coal-fired electricity generation has become the face of climate change as it is the most carbon intense way to produce base load electricity. Canada has a huge hydro resource and is a major exporter of clean (i.e. – non-emitting) energy. Hydro generation’s ability to store energy makes new intermittent generators such as wind and solar practical. Canada also is very experienced in nuclear generation and small module reactors are showing great promise for the future. Eliminating coal-fired generation has become Canada’s low-lying fruit in the battle against climate change.
It is possible that a “equivalency agreement” can be reached with the federal government that will allow Belledune to run beyond 2030. How this would work is that if (for example) NB Power began running Belledune at 50% of its normal production now and going forward… it could run until almost 2040 yet still produce the same emissions as running at its normal production level and shutting down in 2030 (i.e. – generate half the emission but for twice as long). This has merit for NB Power as costs would be mitigated somewhat by running Belledune only when electricity prices are high. Unfortunately, running less now will result in immediate pain for the businesses and contractors who provide maintenance support for the station. This is not good news for these businesses especially given the recent closure of Glencore’s Smelter operation in Belledune… but not NB Power’s problem.
An equivalency agreement may be to be a good mitigation… but it must be a strategy of last resort. The business case would require a commitment to burning coal post 2030 which will have increasing reputational risks for NB Power as a modern energy provider. An equivalency Agreement is certainly not a growth strategy for our province.
Maritime Iron
While coal fired generation is targeted for elimination, things are different for industries like Maritime Iron. What is not talked about in the media, is that invariably every jurisdiction across Canada and around the globe that has proposed or put a climate change plan in place, has built-in protections for what is called the “Energy Intensive Trade Exposed” (EITE) industrial sector. Cement, Iron and Steel are highly valued as the building blocks of civilization and are the primary examples of EITE industries. Producing these commodities results in high carbon emissions, however, unlike the electricity sector, science tells us there are no non-emitting alternatives (ex. – You need to consume carbon to produce carbon steel).
Contrary to some opinions, the goal of any climate plan is not to commit economic suicide by eliminating necessary, but energy intensive industries. The goal is to incent them to become more efficient. EITE industries (by definition) compete in the global market. Taxing them heavily would make them uncompetitive and force them to move to a jurisdiction without a carbon tax…. a phenomenon referred to as “Carbon Leakage”. Typically, EITE industries are given emissions credits to protect against carbon leakage and are only taxed on emissions above an industry standard. This makes investing to improve efficiency more attractive than relocating to another country.
Maritime Iron (a Canadian company) is partnered with POSCO (South Korea) who are the 4th largest steel producer in the world. The technology they are using is new, proven, and lowest GHG producing technology available. Maritime Iron should be treated very well under Canada’s Climate Change regulations.
If Maritime Iron locates in Belledune it will have a solid future. Most (95%) of Canada’s iron ore is shipped out of near-by Sept Isles Quebec and sails passed the Port of Belledune to markets in the United States and around the world. This flow of Iron Ore out of Quebec will not change in the foreseeable future.
Behind the headlines created by President Trump’s steel tariffs awhile back; the US steel industry has for many years been switching from the traditional blast furnace design to the newer technology electric arc furnace. This newer technology is 40% more efficient (primarily) due to its ability to use of scrap steel as a feedstock. Electric arc furnaces require Pig Iron in the mix with the scrap steel to control the quality of the steel it produces. Maritime Iron will produce this pig iron… a product that is not manufactured in North America today.
The future will be a greener place but we will still need to build bridges, buildings and machines. Steel is certainly a part of the future and Maritime Iron will help reduce the impact it has on the environment. New Brunswick needs to hang its hat on the future, on new technology… and with the integration of Belledune and Maritime Iron, it does not have to abandon the past.
Why Integrate?
Integration is a great opportunity to rescue the Belledune Generating Station from obsolescence and attach it to new technology so it can generate revenue & employment for many decades to come. Integration also means that Maritime Iron does not have to build a power plant (to burn their by-product gas) nor does it need to build much of the supporting infrastructure that that facility like theirs requires.
Integration is only possible because of decisions and investments made when Belledune was first being built. When NB Power originally ordered Belledune’s coal-fired boiler (which makes the steam, to turn the turbine, to turn the generator to make electricity) they ordered a multi-fuel option. Amazingly, converting the boiler burn Maritime Iron’s gas is as simple as removing the blanks covering the “Future Burner” section of the boiler and inserting the new gas burners in the holes. Conversion costs could not be cheaper… and the conversion could be completed within a typical maintenance outage.
In addition, Belledune was originally expected to be a “Four generating unit site”. NB Power therefore built ship unloading and material handling infrastructure sized to supply coal to four generating units. Only one generating unit was ever built… so, only 25% of the capacity of this infrastructure is being used. Since this infrastructure is oversized, it is capable meeting all the raw material handling needs of both NB Power and Maritime Iron. Similarly, NB Power dammed the Belledune river to create a large fresh water reservoir capable of meeting the needs of four generating units and similarly this reservoir has the capacity to supply fresh water to both Maritime Iron and the Belledune generating station. (Imagine trying to get approval to build a reservoir like that today.)
How Integration Should Work (my opinion)
If Belledune and Maritime Iron integrate, then the scenario should be that Belledune runs at normal capacity until 2030 on a blend of gas and coal. After 2030 Belledune would run at reduced capacity on gas alone and the sale of Belledune assets to Maritime iron should be considered at that time.
Many large industrial facilities generate their own electricity from waste or by-products to improve the over all efficiency of their process… and even though they may sell excess electricity to a local utility, they are not considered a utility or part of the Electricity Sector. If Maritime Iron built their facility without integrating with NB Power, most of the electricity they would generate would be consumed by their own processes and they would not be subject to Canada’s Coal Fired regulation SOR/2012-167.
Integration should not change that. Even though Maritime Iron and NB Power would be temporarily sharing physical assets through a business agreement, they should be regulated & taxed as two separate entities. Emissions from Maritime Iron would include the iron making process itself and the burning of their by-product gas. NB Power’s emissions would be only from burning coal.
So Maritime Iron’s emissions would stay the same whether they integrate or not. What would change with integration is that Belledune’s coal-fired emissions would drop due to the coal being displaced by Maritime Iron’s gas. This would be a significant improvement over Canada’s goal as Belledune’s coal fired emissions would not only end in 2030, they would be reduced by about 50% well in advance of 2030 deadline.
What about New Brunswick’s Emission Targets?
The elephant in the room is that Maritime Iron, even though they would be offset by Belledune, would drive carbon emissions up likely resulting in New Brunswick missing its emission target. This is unfortunate but it is only due to New Brunswick’s small size that a single plant can have such an impact.
Maritime Iron would only be a small ripple on Ontario or Quebec’s emissions if they chose to locate there.
A target is not a rule or a regulation… it is a tool for measuring, not a roadblock. We need to focus on the big picture and that is the fact that Maritime Iron will drive down global emissions.
Summary
I do believe climate change is a threat to our future and is caused by humans. I also believe governments need to lead the charge to curb climate change… and that a carbon tax is a good vehicle. However, having been the manager of a coal fired generating station I also see what a disruption these new rules and taxes bring to industry… and I know there will be winners and losers as a result.
Generally, industries with new technology will survive the disruption but outdated and obsolete technology will die. Maritime Iron’s new lowest GHG producing technology makes it possible not only to survive, but thrive under a carbon tax regime. They are also on the right side of the steel industry’s transition into lower GHG producing electric arc furnaces… and steel is not going away.
Maritime Iron is a rare opportunity for New Brunswick’s improve its long-term economic future but it will need the support of our provincial government to make it a reality. An Equivalency Agreement only prolongs the death of Belledune.
