Power project on display

With enough power to light up 100,000 homes, produce hundreds of construction jobs and a $750 million price tag, a proposed hydroelectric project north of Lake Nipigon was on public display Tuesday.

Ontario Power Generation’s Little Jackfish River Hydroelectric project would see two generating stations built on the river, adding 100 megawatts of electricity to the provincial grid. Project manager Murray Paterson said the project has been proposed for decades but due to a lower demand for power and a prohibitive cost, the project was never realized.

As the province moves toward cleaner energy sources, Paterson said times have changed.

"I think the stars are aligning in terms of the move to green energy in the province also the interest of the First Nations communities around the lake in working with us to develop the project," Paterson said. "I think the time is right for the project now."

Last month, five First Nations communities from around Lake Nipigon signed a statement of relationship signifying their support for the project, which the communities hope would bring economic benefits to their area including green energy projects of their own.

Those projects as well as the Little Jackfish project depend first on the proposed Northwest Transmission Project, a 430 kilometre transmission line from Nipigon to Pickle Lake said Paterson.

"That’s critical to the project that we have that. It’s sort of a highway that we would tap into to move the power out of the project into other parts of the project," Paterson said.

During an open house Tuesday at Valhalla Inn, members of the public had a chance to voice their concerns about the project as part of the ongoing Environmental Assessment. Since 2009, OPG has studied from fish habitats to vegetation around the Little Jackfish River, an area known predominantly for its pickerel.

With a proposed 10-square kilometre flood area created from the project, Paterson said that would be a main concern for OPG. But when the project was last proposed in the 1980s, the flood area was 40 square kilometres added Paterson.

"It’s nothing insurmountable I don’t think but there are definitely some concerns that we have to pay attention to as we develop the project to make sure we don’t have any lasting adverse effects on the environment," Paterson said.

OPG will submit an environmental report early next year. Paterson said a best case scenario for the Little Jackfish project would see construction begin in 2012 and operations starting in 2014.