Ontario goes on green job spree

Ontario Wind Energy Jobs expand as Siemens opens a Tillsonburg blade plant and Samsung builds a Windsor tower facility, boosting renewable manufacturing, supply chains, construction employment, and local economies under the province's green energy plan.

As many as 1,700 green energy jobs in southwestern Ontario are coming, according to Queen’s Park sources.

The announcements are part of an energy policy blitz as the provincial Liberal government tries to take the offensive on the energy file.

The new jobs are coming as a result of three projects:

• The government will announce that a new Siemens Canada facility to manufacture wind turbine blades will be built in Tillsonburg.

The new plant will employ 300 full-time workers, and will result in another 600 construction and indirect jobs.

• The province will announce that the first manufacturing facility under Samsung Canada’s controversial deal with the province will be located in Windsor.

The plant, to make steel towers for wind turbines, will employ 300 once it gets going, and will create another 400 construction and spin-off jobs.

• Energy Minister Brad Duguid was on hand to welcome delivery of the first entirely made-in-Ontario steel towers for wind turbines, delivered to the Pointe-aux-Roches wind project in Essex County. The 27 towers were made by Algoma Steel the project will create 126 construction and spin-off jobs.

The Liberals have promised that their green energy plan will ultimately create 50,000 jobs in Ontario. They say renewable sources, including offshore wind, are needed to replace coal-burning plants.

But the Conservatives have been complaining that the green energy plan is driving up electricity bills for families and businesses.

The Liberals tried to blunt that criticism by giving consumers and small businesses a 10 per cent rebate on their hydro bills.

Now, they’re rolling out the jobs.

At the Pointe-aux-Roches site, Duguid hammered away at what will be a theme in the lead-up to next October’s provincial election.

“This project is a great example of how our energy plan is strengthening the economy and making Ontario’s energy supply cleaner and more sustainable,” he said.

While the announcements will be good news for the communities that are getting the jobs, they will disappoint others.

Siemens had previously announced that they would set up a plant for turbine blades somewhere between Hamilton and Windsor, but had not named a location.

Hamilton had high hopes of landing the plant. Siemens has said it will close a gas turbine plant in Hamilton next summer, terminating 550 jobs. Instead, the turbine blades will be made in Tillsonburg.

The Samsung plant in Windsor is part of a $7-billion commitment that the company made with the province. Samsung will get $437 million in subsidies over the life of the 25-year agreement, over and above the high feed-in tariff rates that it will get for power from its wind and solar projects.

Samsung must build and open a number of specified plans to make solar and wind powered generating equipment, including Northern Ontario projects, in order to qualify for the subsidies.

Construction of the Windsor plant will occur during the next year, with the plant expected to open in early 2012.

That’s far ahead of the deadline set under the original agreement, which said the plant must open by the end of 2015.

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