MP Gallant Supports Biomass to Create Local Jobs

October 26, 2009

PEMBROKE, ONTARIO… MP Cheryl Gallant, (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke) confirmed her support for the use of biomass, consisting of wood chips, sawdust and other waste for energy generation and the preservation of jobs in the working forest.

“I recently had the opportunity to research wood energy in Finland. The Finns are years ahead of us when it comes to utilizing the forest. I understand that over 40 percent of their commercial and industrial buildings use biomass for their energy needs,” stated MP Cheryl Gallant. “Other European Countries like Italy, Germany and Great Britain also see the value of using environmentally-friendly biomass rather than non-renewable fossil fuels. Canada has the potential to triple its current biomass energy production. Nowhere is that more apparent than here in the Upper Ottawa valley.”

As an environmentally sustainable fuel, biomass is increasingly being seen as a competitive energy source. Almost 6% of the total energy consumed in Canada is currently produced from biomass sources. The majority of this production is in the pulp and paper industries, which use their own residues to produce process steam and electricity. The combustion of wood for residential heating makes up the difference. There are however numerous biomass feedstocks that could be used for industrial and commercial energy production; residues from the forestry industry (harvesting through to final processing), agricultural residues and municipal solid wastes (MSW). Special energy crops such as hybrid poplar, willow and switchgrass can be grown in plantations. 

“While the Federal Government is very supportive of biomass, the problem lies with the Province, which controls the local energy market as well as the forests. Biomass should be recognized as a clean, efficient, environmentally friendly and safe energy source. The use of wood in Canadian homes could be significantly increased if the provincial perception of this energy source were improved. Biomass still remains the only class of fuels that can be burned in a CO2-neutral manner. In spite of this fact, biomass fuels are underutilized in Ontario,” said MP Gallant.

“The Biomass & Renewables Research Program of the Federal Government is working to increase the use of biomass fuels by collaborating with the designers and manufacturers of biomass burning furnaces, boilers, stoves, fireplaces and equipment components and the producers of biomass fuels such as chunk wood, wood pellets and chips, fireplace logs, corn husks and tree bark. At some point the province must be convinced to support the forest industry and the jobs that go with it,” concluded Cheryl Gallant, MP.