Premier Doug Ford announced the province will spend $500 million to help a steel mill in Hamilton become one of the first in North America to move off coal.
“You already make some of the finest steel in the world,” Ford told workers during a press conference at the ArcelorMittal Dofasco plant in Hamilton today.
“Soon, not only will it be the best, it will be the cleanest.”
The approximately $1.8 billion project will see Canada’s largest flat-rolled steel producer replace its aging coal-fed coke ovens and blast furnaces with new low emission technology in its Hamilton facility.
University of Toronto professor Shoshanna Saxe says it’s an important upgrade.
“The current furnaces tend to be old and they need to be replaced,” said Saxe. “We need to have a strong steel industry in Ontario, in Canada and moving from old manufacturing techniques to modern ones.”
The new furnaces run on electricity instead of coal, as the company looks to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 25 per cent by 2030.
“It is an ambitious target for a steel and mining company, but we believe it is achievable,” said John Brett, CEO North America, ArcelorMittal in a press release issued by the Ontario Government.
“We have a real challenge with climate change, and we need to really to come to climate neutrality as per the Paris Protocol and therefore it is very important that we reduce our emissions from all sectors, including transportation,” said University of Toronto Professor, Mohini Sain.
The Government of Ontario’s investment in loans and grants to support the project will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about three million tonnes annually.
“I am not surprised that the government is targeting the transportation sector to mitigate that challenge,” said Sain.
“Ontario traditionally is an automotive primarily driven sector so naturally, that’s the one thing and the second thing is in terms of population, one-fourth of the total population of Canada lives in GTA and surrounding areas making it the primary place where driving happens therefore leading to emissions,” said Sain.
Meeting those goals could be possible but there would be a lot of challenges along the way.
“Even though the step is a positive one, the challenges can be both technical and social,” said University of Toronto Professor, Greg Evans.
“It depends on a lot of parameters, given the step that they are taking it will be able to mitigate and if we need to quantify in terms of 2030, you definitely do have a very detailed modelling and calculations that will need to be verified,” said Sain.
Premier Doug Ford also confirmed that the provincial government is in talks with one more manufacturer to work toward the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.