Barry Rothfuss, AWI executive director

Local opponents of the proposed 500 MW gas plant near Centre Village are accusing NB Power and its American partner PROENERGY of practising “bait and switch” tactics in attempting to get public support for their joint project.

“For months, PROENERGY and NB Power used the promise of First Nations’ partnership to quiet intense community, health care and environmental opposition,” Barry Rothfuss, executive director of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute says in a news release.

“Now that they have pushed through their initial approvals, they have uncoupled the project from Indigenous equity, proving that the original reconciliation narrative was just a public relations tactic used for commercial advantage,” he adds.

Rothfuss was reacting to NB Power Vice President Brad Coady’s comment this week that the gas/diesel plant could go ahead without an Indigenous financial or equity partnership.

Coady told reporters in Sackville on Tuesday that although Indigenous participation would be “a highly desired outcome,” it is not essential for the project to gain regulatory approvals from the Energy & Utilities Board or under the provincial environmental impact assessment.

‘Greenwashing’

Coady’s comments have led Rothfuss and five other opponents of the gas plant to update their previous complaint to the federal Competition Bureau to include what they claim is a “false narrative” about Indigenous reconciliation that is “direct evidence of corporate deception and federal greenwashing.”

The original complaint accused PROENERGY of making misleading statements about the health effects of the gas plant on the local community and NB Power of making misleading statements about the financial risks to provincial ratepayers.

Their complaint also accused NB Power and its American partner of the deceptive practice of “greenwashing” by using the acronym “RIGS” that stands for “Renewables Integration and Grid Security” to create the false impression that the project’s primary purpose is to support green energy.

Recent changes to the Competition Act prohibit companies from using greenwashing to promote their business interests in ways that would make them appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than they really are.

NB Power VP Brad Coady speaking to Tantramar Town Council

In a telephone interview Friday, Rothfuss also pointed to Coady’s statements during his presentation to Tantramar Town Council acknowledging that the gas plant would produce higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the region when it is generating electricity.

“I understand that there’s concerns that the emissions in this region will go up and that is a fact,” Coady told council.

He added however, that overall emissions across the province would go down because the gas plant would enable NB Power to stop burning dirtier fuels as more intermittent renewables such as wind and solar are brought onto the grid.

Coady also pointed out that the gas plant would burn fuels to generate power, on average, only 7% of the time.

Transboundary pollution

Rothfuss says Coady’s acknowledgment that emissions will rise across the region confirms concerns about pollution crossing provincial boundaries which is a federal issue that would not be covered under a provincial environmental impact assessment.

“These peaker plants do environmental harm,” he says, “and it doesn’t matter whether they’re operating 5%, 10%, or 7% of the time because they run dirty when they start up and the impact can be devastating, especially from a human public health perspective.”

He adds that the health and environmental harms are well documented from the thousands of peaker plants operating across the globe.

Earlier this month, Rothfuss wrote to federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin requesting a full federal environmental review of the project partly because of transboundary pollution issues.

On Friday, he updated his request mentioning Coady’s admission to council that greenhouse gas emissions will rise across the region and that PROENERGY is now planning to truck wastewater from the site, possibly to a disposal facility in Halifax.

Constitutional treaty rights

Federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin. Photo: Mélanie Provencher, House of Commons

Rothfuss’s latest letter to Dabrusin also mentions Coady’s comment about the project going ahead without an Indigenous partnership and calls on the federal government to honour its obligation under Section 35 of Canada’s constitution to respect aboriginal treaty rights.

“The federal Crown cannot stand by as a passive observer while a crown corporation explicitly bypasses the necessity of Indigenous consent on unceded territory, particularly when the ongoing Mi’kmaw Rights Impact Assessment remains highly contested and incomplete,” his letter states, referring to the rights impact assessment being conducted on behalf of New Brunswick’s nine Mi’kmaq First Nations.

Rothfuss says he finds it frustrating that NB Power began by claiming there was Indigenous participation.

“They gave people the illusion that it was there and now they’re coming back and saying, ‘it’s not there, and therefore, we don’t really need it because it’s not required,'” he says.

“Well, it is required and the point I’m trying to make with the federal government is that it’s their mandate to regulate this and make sure that the Indigenous communities are being treated fairly and brought to the table for consultation, and that they’re heard,” he says.