Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning to the other members.
I would like to acknowledge that I am joining you today from the traditional territories of the Mi'kmaq, Wolastoqiyik and Peskotomuhkati people.
I'm here to speak about the delivery, via ACOA, of the Canada coal transition. ACOA, as you know, is the federal department charged with fuelling the Atlantic economy. It works with both businesses and communities to build a strong and inclusive environment.
ACOA was mandated to deliver $55 million, under two programs, to help five affected communities in terms of transition. The five communities include Belledune in New Brunswick, Trenton in Pictou County, and Point Aconi, Point Tupper and Lingan in Nova Scotia.
It’s important to understand that the situation across the country can be very different. In fact, when we look at our five communities, the situations are different and we need to adapt to them.
In New Brunswick and in Nova Scotia, there is no imminent shuttering of the coal-generating facilities. Therefore, the labour transition is not going to occur for another five or six years. For us, focusing on the community adjustment rather than the labour force was timely. In our situation, the respective power companies are well equipped to redeploy employees to other higher-skilled jobs and to look at things like early retirement and other measures.
With that in mind, we were really focused on delivering to impacted communities and working with employers first, to establish their priorities in terms of what they saw as a transition. This is consistent with the just transition recommendations, to meet with the affected communities and to learn about their local priorities and goals of developing and diversifying their economy. In Atlantic Canada, we are dealing, as I said, with community transition more than employee transition at this point.
This long-term approach aims to help the communities diversify and build up other sectors to make the most of their local assets to grow the economy and create local employment. Once those goals are established, ACOA then engages with other government agencies to implement measures and meet the needs. Establishing a program or framework comes after community goals are set.
To date, ACOA has supported major, often long-term, projects, including the expansion and upgrading of port infrastructure in Belledune, financing an accelerator in Pictou County and supporting the growth of the bioprocessing sector in Cape Breton. I would like to point out to the committee members that all of the projects supported by ACOA were developed in consultation with and in partnership with community leaders and employers. Through the two CCTI initiatives, ACOA has supported to date 32 projects with total investments of $24.6 million.
For example, some of the things we've done include, in Cape Breton, financing the development of a company called Protocase, creating 50 jobs there; and in New Brunswick, with AJN Investment, developing a green-certified, building panel manufacturing facility that will use 100% recyclable material, creating over 140 jobs.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the Canada transition is helping communities, one by one, to look at their prospects in developing things. We will continue to work and bring in other partners as necessary, once these are identified. I would use, for instance, the accelerator that the community wanted to develop in Pictou County. We brought in people from Innovacorp, Volta, NRC, etc., to bring the federal and provincial provincial partners together to address those issues.
With that, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I appreciate being invited.