June 18, 2008

Trillium Power and First Nations Technical Institute strike training, education agreement

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

Trillium Power Wind and the First Nations Technical Institute (FNTI) have completed a bilateral agreement which will offer a wide range of training and educational opportunities to First Nations members.

“First Nations are integral partners in our renewable energy future, and they have a deep commitment to protecting our natural resources,” explains John Kourtoff, president and CEO Trillium Power.

“We are honoured to have the opportunity to work together with this community. We wanted to reach out, embrace them and include them in the development of our project.”

Trillium Power and FNTI will work together with St. Lawrence College to train First Nations students in developing and maintaining offshore and onshore wind power facilities. Once these joint programs are in place, FNTI will be the first and only indigenous educational institution in the world to offer a comprehensive wind-power training program.

“We look forward to creating opportunities for First Nations people to support offshore wind development and being involved at the very beginning of a new era of ‘green-collar’ manufacturing and service enterprises,” says Karihwakeron Tim Thompson, president of FNTI.

Trillium intends to build a 140 turbine offshore wind farm between 20 to 25 kilometres from the Prince Edward County shoreline in Eastern Ontario. The wind farm would generate 710 megawatts of power, enough to power 250,000 homes in Ontario.

The Ontario government lifted a moratorium on offshore development earlier this year after studying the potential environmental impacts on wildlife, aquatic species and bird migration routes.

Offshore wind farms have been built or are on the books for Denmark, the United Kingdom and British Columbia.

Trillium has stated before its belief that Ontario has the capacity to become a green-technology leader in construction, manufacturing and job training for wind power.

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