Mitton says community will not accept proposed gas plant on Chignecto Isthmus

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton says the proposed 500 MW gas/diesel generating plant on the Chignecto Isthmus is being pushed through in haste, without proper consultation.

“It’s pretty hard to stomach this being called transparent when it was really sprung on us in the middle of summer and trying to be rushed through in summer when we can’t have recording, we can’t have journalists record what’s happening in this room,” she said during a public question and answer session attended by about 200 people Wednesday at the Tantramar Civic Centre in Sackville.

The American company, PROENERGY, which hosted the Q&A, would not allow audio recording devices or cameras to be used during the meeting.

Mitton was the final speaker of the 18 who asked questions of officials from PROENERGY, NB Power, Stantec consulting and the provincial department of environment and local government. The questions and answers led to exchanges that were at times heated and angry while at others, highly technical.

“We’re not going to let you go in and build this,” someone shouted from the audience as Mitton objected to the use of fracked gas in a massive power plant located in a highly sensitive ecosystem.

“It’s not happening. You are not building this. We will be out there every day,” the audience member added.

“My community won’t accept this,” Mitton said, “and I’m proud of everyone in the room for showing up, being educated, researching this and asking great questions.

“This is our community and this is our utility. N.B. power shouldn’t be signing contracts with U.S companies,” she said to cheers and applause.

Mat Gorman of NB Power said the fracked gas comes from Alberta through a pipeline that runs through the States.

“It’s all fracked,” Mitton said. “We shouldn’t be burning more fracked gas.”

‘Why here?’

Allison Manthorne, a director at Birds Canada, pointed out that the Chignecto Isthmus is one of 23 conservation priority sites in Canada where numerous environmental organizations are working to preserve wildlife habitat and a wide variety of flora and fauna.

“Given the international importance of this area for wildlife and biodiversity, why here?” she asked to loud applause.

Mat Gorman of NB Power replied that the utility looked at nine locations for the gas plant, but finally settled on two: the Scoudouc Industrial Park and the Isthmus.

“We needed natural gas availability and we needed transmission line infrastructure,” he said, referring to the fact that the Maritimes and Northeast gas pipeline and a major transmission line both cross at the site near Centre Village.

He added that environmental consultants from Stantec assessed both sites and judged that the one in Scoudouc was more vulnerable when considering the effects on fish and fish habitats, wetlands and migratory birds.

He said the Scoudouc site also has potential archeological significance.

“Both sites are viable,” Gorman said, “but to meet the needs of our system integration by 2028, we would not have been able to develop the Scoudouc property in time, which led us to Centre Village.”¹

Hydro and battery backup

Mat Gorman also rejected suggestions that NB Power could buy more electricity from Quebec instead of building a big gas plant.

He said that when bad weather hits, Quebec is often affected too and as demand for electricity increases, there can be supply shortages, a situation that developed during a record cold snap in February 2023.

“Internal security always comes first,” Gorman said. “You need to have local source generation to meet your peak demands for that one bad day at a maximum capacity and you can’t rely on your injects.”

He also argued that, at the moment, Quebec does not have as much excess hydro power as people think.

Landon Tessmer of PROENERGY said storage batteries won’t work as an alternative either, especially when there’s a climate emergency that knocks out half the grid.

“Let’s call it a severe winter storm and you’re out for four days in a row,” he said.

“You need a power plant that can provide power for four days straight. A battery can provide power for four hours, not four days straight.”

Animals and forests

The emotional and technical aspects of the public Q&A came into sharp contrast after eight-year-old Marlee Hicks asked: “How many animals will be killed or moved as you build your plant?”

Dale Conroy of the consulting firm Stantec said the effects on birds, fish, other wildlife and rare plants are being studied as part of the current environmental assessment.

“And from that, we’re going to put in mitigation that will hopefully, if the project gets approved, be put in place to reduce any impacts to those types of animals that are in the area that we found,” he added.

“What does mitigation mean?” Marlee Hicks asked.

“So mitigation is basically a term we use for, I guess, best management practices that are put in place to help reduce the effects of something,” Conroy answered.

“So, for instance, if we wanted to cut down a tree or a forest…

“Why would we cut down a forest?” Hicks asked as the audience broke into laughter and applause.

“We cut down forests every day,” Conroy replied.

“But typically, on a project like this, we would put in mitigation that says you can’t cut down a forest when it’s breeding bird season because you don’t want to harm the breeding birds or the eggs that are in the nest. So you wait until they’re done breeding before you cut down the tree.”

“That’s not how it goes,” an obviously unconvinced Hicks concluded.

Both NB Power and PROENERGY argue that natural gas is needed to generate power as backup to intermittent renewables such as wind and solar. They say the natural gas plant is also needed to stabilize voltage on the grid as more renewables come on line to meet government climate change targets.