SAINT JOHN - An interim task force comprised of 11 notable business and community leaders has been charged with mapping out the future of the energy industry in New Brunswick.
The group - which is being described as a transition team - was hastily formed out of talks at a summit on the direction of the energy hub held over a day and a half in Saint John. About 90 representatives from industry, government, academia, community and labour were in attendance at the Delta Brunswick hotel on Friday for the meeting, which was hosted by the Department of Energy.
Dale Knox, president and CEO of Tabufile Records Management and past chair of Enterprise Saint John and the YMCA, was chosen to represent the community.
He said the group will likely meet eight to 10 times over the next 60 days with a goal of establishing a governance structure and establishing a permanent task force by the end of that time frame.
"This is an interim task force that would actually go out and find the group that will lead the energy hub on in the future," Knox said, after the summit concluded.
The first meeting will be within a week and will include representatives from Ernst & Young LLP, the facilitator of the summit. Energy Minister Jack Keir said Ernst & Young has committed to formalizing the discussions participants engaged in on Friday and creating a roadmap for further consideration.
Keir said it will be up to the transition team to determine how the task force will be funded going forward. He said participants in the summit were clear that industry and the community must take the lead on the energy hub and cannot rely on long-term government funding.
Andrew Dawson, Atlantic Canada representative for the Canadian office of the Building and Trades Department, was also picked for the task force.
He said the 15,000 workers he represents have worked millions of man hours in the last couple of years in the Saint John area on energy-related projects.
"We've all known all along that the energy hub was much bigger than just the second refinery," he said, insisting that the energy hub is not dead.
Dawson said the announcement Thursday of an agreement between French nuclear company Areva, the province and NB Power to look into building a second reactor in New Brunswick also gave his members a boost.
"It's a very real thing to us," he said.
Steve Power, sector leader for power and utilities for Ernst & Young, said the firm has facilitated several similar summits over the last five years across the world. He said the objective is to bring industry stakeholders together to stimulate discussion and "move an issue further down the path to resolution," and added that this meeting was unique.
"What we got out of this ignition summit here in New Brunswick was really concrete. Our other ones weren't as fortunate to have the concept as well-defined," he said.
In addition to Knox and Dawson, Keir said the transition team that came out of Friday's summit will include: Mike Ashar (Irving Oil Operations G.P. president), Jim Irving (J.D. Irving, Limited president), Rayburn Doucet (president and CEO of the Port of Belledune), Daniel St. Onge, Gerry Pond (representing the New Brunswick Poverty Reduction Plan), Leopold Pinet, Eddy Campbell (president of the University of New Brunswick), Clair LePage (deputy minister of energy) and Gaëtan Thomas (president and CEO of NB Power).

Original Source : The New Brunswick Business Journal