Green energy developer ensures Mi’kmaw participation in Cape Breton production facility

Point Tupper, home to one of the world’s deepest ports, is also the site of EverWind Fuels’ under-development green hydrogen and ammonia production, storage and export facility. Along with that project, a second undertaking is planned for Bear Head, just three kilometres south of the EverWind site. The Bear Head location was to have been the site of an liquified natural gas (LNG) project but the company’s new owners are now planning to go ahead with a green hydrogen production, storage and export facility. CONTRIBUTED

POINT TUPPER, N.S. — A major green energy developer signed an agreement with Mi’kmaw communities on Tuesday to ensure their participation in the development of a green hydrogen and ammonia production facility in Point Tupper.

Bear Head Energy Inc. and the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs committed to soon amend an existing agreement — the 2019 Benefits Agreement — that guaranteed Mi’kmaw benefits for their contributions toward Bear Head’s energy projects in the area.

Bear Head’s statement said the amendment’s purpose is to “reinforce the commitment … to develop the project in an environmentally sustainable manner” and guarantee Mi’kmaw stakeholders can participate and benefit.

“This Benefits Agreement will not only help us as leaders be engaged in what is happening with the project but it will also give Mi’kmaw the opportunity to realize economic opportunities in the work that they are doing,” said Sidney Peters, the chief of Glooscap First Nation and co-chair of the Mi’kmaw chiefs assembly in the statement.

The 2019 agreement was Bear Head’s first commitment to the chiefs assembly for Mi'kmaq involvement in its energy project developments and benefits. At the time, the project was intended for liquified natural gas processing. Bear Head announced the shift to green energy production last year.

Paul MacLean, Bear Head’s managing director, said in the statement the company is “pleased to be building on those relationships” with local Mi’kmaw communities and to "provide meaningful Mi’kmaq participation in the project.”

The planned production, storage and loading facility in Point Tupper, on the Strait of Canso, took a major step forward in April as it received an approved environmental assessment from the Department of Environmental and Climate Change. The facility has also been approved to construct a marine terminal at the site.

The announcement comes a day after Membertou First Nation partnered with green hydrogen developer EverWind Fuels to build two wind farms in Nova Scotia. EverWind also has a facility in Point Tupper.

Bear Head said the facility will have the potential to produce 350,000 tonnes of hydrogen and two million tonnes of ammonia per year at peak production.

- Luke Dyment is a multimedia journalist with the Cape Breton Post. Follow him on Twitter @lwdyment.