Councillors optimistic project is dead, FarmTech says no decision yet

OSHAWA — For the second time in four months, the company planning to build an ethanol plant at the Oshawa waterfront has pulled its environmental applications.

Councillors are cautiously optimistic this could spell the end of the project, but FarmTech Energy officials aren’t framing things in such black-and-white terms.

“Our project team has decided that we need to revisit certain aspects of the project,” said FarmTech spokesman Bernie Morton. “Given the extraordinary time it has taken for us to receive the necessary government approvals, certain business decisions need to be made from our end. It is difficult for any business to start up, let alone operate, in a climate involving unnecessary and extraordinary government delays.”

Mr. Morton said his team will make a decision on the fate of the project in the coming weeks, stressing they still hope to bring “clean, green technology, and much-needed jobs and economic stimulus” to Oshawa.

On Jan. 19, the Province’s online environmental registry was updated to reflect the fact FarmTech had withdrawn its most recent application for a certificate of approval to allow materials to be discharged into the natural environment. That application was filed just before Christmas, with a public comment period recently extended to Feb. 6.

This marks the second time FarmTech has abruptly yanked an application to the Ministry of the Environment. The first one was filed last summer, then removed Sept. 4. At that time, Mr. Morton said it needed to be “repackaged,” but opponents speculated it had more to do with the potential for a federal election.

The first application drew 103 public comments. The most recent one drew 32 comments before being removed from the registry.

The application sought permission to allow “emissions to the atmosphere include particulate matter, products of combustion such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds such as ethanol, acetaldehyde, acrolein and benzene, odour and noise.”

While the MOE applications are gone, Tom Hodgins, the City’s commissioner of development services, said the planning act applications FarmTech filed with the City are still in play.

In 2008, FarmTech applied to re-zone a piece of land at the Oshawa waterfront to allow for a 12-hectare, $185-million plant.

Mr. Hodgins said City staff still isn’t in a position to make a recommendation to council on the matter, because FarmTech has yet to provide all the necessary information.

Mayor John Gray was unavailable to comment due to illness, but Councillor Brian Nicholson, who’s the City’s deputy mayor and the representative for the south Oshawa ward that includes the waterfront, said he isn’t declaring victory yet.

“They haven’t said they’re withdrawing the project, just this application,” he said. “There is nothing that precludes them from re-submitting it at a later date. But, I am hopeful they have realized this location isn’t a good fit. That would be the best-case scenario for Oshawa … and for FarmTech.”