South Essex Fabricating Inc…

South Essex Fabricating Inc. is one of the largest Canadian owned constructors of commercial greenhouses and Nature Fresh Farms is one of the largest independent growers of fresh greenhouse produce in Canada and would like to provide the following comments on these proposals:
We agree that growth in southwestern Ontario is occurring at a rapid pace and believe it will continue to do so, as long as infrastructure is available to support that growth. Currently, significant pent-up demand exists, and development is being impeded by lack of access to critical infrastructure such as electricity. With approximately 3500 acres of greenhouses in Ontario, growing at an estimated 10% a year (approximately 370 acres added in 2020, with estimates for the next three years of 375, 425 and 450 additional acres respectively), this is an industry for which growing demand for products has resulted in rapid expansion. In addition, approximately half of the greenhouses constructed over the last five years have installed grow lights to enable growing as close to year round as the plants will allow. Therefore, prioritizing these transmission projects, and designating Hydro One as the transmitter to provide regulatory clarity and avoid unnecessary development delays and confusion that lack of clarity on the transmitter can cause will be crucial to enable the process to occur as efficiently as possible. Also, planning for the additional transmission lines to support additional transmission capacity and enable early development work to occur as soon as possible is also important, and we fully support this proposal. Power is critical to the successful growth of the greenhouse industry in our area, and we have already reached a critical point, so advancing these projects as quickly as possible should be of significant importance to Ontarians.
All of that being said, we have recently had to make the difficult choice to release the right to access additional electricity due to the unsustainable and punitive aid to construct requirements, which would have obligated us to pay millions of dollars to Hydro One prior to connecting to the grid. Until these rules are amended to more equitably manage construction costs for these projects, this will be an ongoing issue that will negatively impact growth and development for all farmers.