Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the House to recognize yet another milestone for the agriculture technology industry in Canada.
I would like to congratulate the city of Chatham and the company Commercial Alcohols for their recent announcement of the construction of a new $153 ethanol production facility. The plant will be one of the largest and most efficient manufacturing facilities in the world. It will benefit the corn industry by utilizing up to 15 million bushels of corn per year.
The winners of this deal are corn producers from all across Ontario, including the ones in my riding of Elgin-Norfolk. In the long run, the environment will win as well as Canadians move from burning hydrocarbons to renewable carbohydrates.
The Liberal government has encouraged ethanol development in Canada with the introduction of a national biomass ethanol program. This has meant 400 permanent jobs per plant and could create up to 6,000 temporary construction jobs in the future.
This is another great example of the Liberal government's commitment to jobs.