In early December, Suncor announced it was investing in a $300-million wind farm near Bow Island, capping off a year that saw $2 billion in renewable energy investment in the region.
Pictured: An artists rendering that imagines the visual impact of the construction oft he Suncor Forty Mile Wind power facility.--submitted photo Suncor The view is facing north west from Highway No. 885 near the Forty Mile Reservoir.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
With one complete and nine other major green power projects ready to roll, renewable energy development and its $2 billion investment in Southeast Alberta is the business story of the year in Southeast Alberta for 2019.
Most of that activity will roll out over the next two years, still it was the most encouraging story over what’s been a rocky 12 months for the local economy.
The shallow natural gas sector continued to shudder as the province announced special tax relief on unprofitable wells. In a landmark shift, the City of Medicine Hat announced it would close about 80 per cent of its production to stem loses.
Business owners gained a spring in their step with the election of the United Conservatives in the April provincial Election. But consumer confidence across the province dipped late in the year as high unemployment lingered.
In another jarring hit for local outlook, Aurora Cannabis announced it would delay fully commissioning its massive marijuana growing facility until 2021.
Other efforts moved forward, but little went as smoothly as Capital Power’s building its $350-million wind farm near Bow Island. That project went online in early December after employing more than 300 workers at its height, filling hotels and restaurants this past year.
Estimates vary about what portion construction budgets are spent locally, but even at the lowest estimate, the influx of cash would rival the annual payroll of CFB Suffield.
And construction budgets totalling another $1.6 billion in total construction has been approved for the next two years throughout Southeast Alberta.
The year was bookended by major companies announcing they would proceed with substantial projects.
Suncor, Berkshire Hathaway Energy Canada, Power Corp., European utility giants Innogy and EDF all gave regional projects the greenlight.
Using figures the Lethbridge-based Southern Alberta Alternative Energy Partnership, estimates for annual local impact from the area wind projects alone at $12.5 million per year in new local taxes and $3.1 million paid to landowners for land lease agreements.
Building figures
A commercial construction boom wound to a close in the city’s south end, with new commercial plazas, a car dealership and seniors’ living complex,
In the vicinity, the Save-On-Foods grocery store opened after a year-long delay and replaced the former Walmart Supercentre that was demolished after 10 years on the market.
Municipal commercial land sales soared as the city development office marketed and sold a half dozen properties considered excess to municipal needs. Major projects could be permitted in 2020, including a downtown hotel, a multi-family housing project on the site of the Medicine Hat Arena, a condo complex in Connaught,
Commercial land sales roared, while the residential sector snored.
Building permits to November, show only 19 new home permits were issued to that point, down from 46 in 2018, and a recent high of 100 in 2015.
At the same time, Calgary-based developer Enclave ventures announced it and local partners would build the Coulee Ridge Community on land in the city’s southwest.
The Alberta Advantage
The big win for the United Conservatives was enthusiastically received by the broad business community. The new government announced changes to corporate income tax, labour standards on farms, youth minimum wage and promises to revisits the entire labour code next year.
Mixed year for majors
Cancarb rang in 2019 by announcing a $40-million expansion to their production of rubber additive carbon black, but Methanex moved ahead with major expansion in Louisiana rather than a proposal to twin the local methanol facility.
Aurora announced it would slow down commissioning its massive greenhouse, waiting to bring it fully on line until consumer demand warranted, possibly in 2021.
Folium Bioscience announced its intention to build a local processing plant for hemp derivatives in early January.
Hut 8 Cryptocurrency increased the size of a electricity buy from the city utility to power its data-processing centre in the city’s northwest.
Agriculture
Big Marble Greenhouse, a traditional vegetable outfit, announced it planned to add 10 acres to its site south of the city near Highway No. 3.
In wider agriculture farmers and ranchers were vexed with dry spring and summer, then an early damaging frost and freezing conditions – events across the prairies that earned separate spots on Environment Canada’s top-10 weather stories of 2019.
That’s on top of trade tension with China over canola, while other specialty crop growers were hampered.
Lantic Sugar announced in early November that about half the sugar beet crop would be left in the ground.
