Canada and Quebec to provide C$76.5 million to AE Côte-Nord Bioenergy Canada

In Canada, the Governments of Canada and Quebec will provide C$76.5 million in funding to AE Côte-Nord Bioenergy Canada Inc. for the production of renewable fuel oil from forest residues at its Port-Cartier facility. Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honorable Jim Carr, and Laurent Lessard, Quebec’s Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, made the announcement in Port-Cartier.

The Port-Cartier plant will be the first commercial-scale facility of this kind in Quebec. The goal of the project is to convert forest residues into 40 million liters of renewable fuel oil per year. When upgraded into transportation fuels, this will remove up to 70,000 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year. Production of renewable fuel oil is set to begin in 2017.

The Government of Canada is supporting the project through a C$27-million investment from Sustainable Development Technology Canada and C$17.5 million from Natural Resources Canada’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program.

The Government of Quebec is contributing C$32 million to the project, including C$10 million from Investissement Québec. In March 2016, to ensure the fiber supply for the project, the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks reserved 170,000 green tonnes of residues from government forests for the plant.