Laura LaBelle, President of the Cochrane Board of Trade is seeking the assistance of other Northern colleagues to help Save Cochrane Power.
The current operating agreement for Cochrane Power (CP) is with the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation (OEFC), which is a department of the Ministry of Finance. The agreement, which was to end Jan. 11th, was extended until May 11th expressly to allow time for Northland Power and Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to negotiate a new agreement.
On the same day that OEFC issued the May 11th extension, the Minister of Energy directed IESO to suspend all negotiations until they provided him with a strategy for such negotiations. IESO was directed to deliver this strategy in June, which was recently amended to September, well past the May 11th expiry of Cochrane Power’s agreement.
We have been working very hard to ensure a future for this facility, but without an agreement to sell our electricity to the grid, we are forced to stop generating it,” said John Brace, CEO, Northland Power. “It is difficult to understand why the facility has not been granted a further extension until the IESO’s strategy is delivered.”
For the last 25 years, the power generation facility has been an integral part of the community. It provides millions of dollars a year that directly impact the local economy and supports hundreds of good-paying local jobs. Cochrane Power also supplies heat to the Tim Horton Event Centre and is the single largest water customer for the Town of Cochrane.
“This facility is critically important to North Eastern Ontario and its forestry and agricultural industries,” Brace went on to say. “We will continue to do everything we can, and are prepared to work with government to find a solution so that we can continue to help them achieve their goal of fostering a prosperous, sustainable Northern economy.”
To support their initiative – please go to www.savecochranepower.com or click on the icon above.
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