McCain announced a $600-million expansion earlier this year to double the size of the facility. It’s the largest investment in the company’s history, creating 260 new jobs and installing wind turbines and solar panels to provide the site with 100-per-cent renewable electricity. It also plans to use biogas to run boilers, cutting its natural gas consumption.
“A full halt to site development work and AUC applications seems to be a needlessly cautious approach where industry-leading standards and regulations have been in place for years,” McCain wrote in its submission. “This project is intended to utilize lands that are not suitable for any sort of industrial development and will serve as a stable, non-tax revenue source for our community,” it said, and should therefore not be subject to the pause.
Not all respondents opposed the pause. Some said it was key to resolving issues around land-use arguments that have sown division in their communities. Others argued it was necessary to ensure wind turbines or solar panels aren’t left to rust in fields if companies go bust or walk away from their projects.