by BRIAN LOCKHART
Machabee Farm Foods’ plans to build a deadstock biodigester in St. Albert Ontario are being mired in hefty start up costs including a $900,000 quote by Ontario Power Generation to connect the facility to the power grid.
The company raised $4 million for the project and sought the remaining $2 million in funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). The project’s $6 million price tag includes costs of connecting to the grid.
“They provide, in our view, an essential service,” says Mary McCuaig CAO of Nation Township of Machabee’s, noting the area is “primarily rural farmland.”
The town provided OMAFRA with a brief detailing the need for such a plant after the application for partial funding of the project was turned down.
McCuaig says Machabee is still trying to secure financing for the project but will not proceed until it is found.
Neither company spokesperson Guy Machabee nor an OMAFRA spokesperson could be immediately reached for comment.
The company operates five related businesses in eastern Ontario.
If constructed the biodigester would create 20 new jobs in the area. BF
$900,000 connection fee
I believe there is a cricket club in Toronto that may be able to pony up that amount.
Startup costs stall biodigester project
This government must truly have some sort of grudge against rural Ontario especially farm rural eastern Ontario. First the support for dead stock disposal is removed. Then we are told to DIY on our own land and there was some quick change to NM to facilitate the policy change. Now we have a service provider undertaking a project to provide a long term solution to the dead stock problem and they stick the company with a sizable connection fee. This seems to be a repeating theme throughout eastern Ontario.