PORT HAWKESBURY - A federal funding announcement regarding the Strait Area's green hydrogen sector drew a large crowd to the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre on Friday afternoon. 

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser joined Cape Breton-Canso MP Mike Kelloway to confirm a funding package of $125 million in loans, grants and tax credits to EverWind Fuels. The company is currently carrying out renovations to the former NuStar Terminals building in Point Tupper. It intends to start shipping power generated by green hydrogen and green ammonia to global markets by the end of 2025. 

Also on hand for Friday's announcement at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre were the Mi'kmaq Chiefs of Paktnkek and Membertou First Nations. Along with Richmond County-based Potlotek First Nation. They will have an ownership stake in EverWind Fuels. 

Answering questions from reporters following the announcement, Fraser and EverWind Fuels CEO Trent Vichie confirmed that some of the electricity produced for the Point Tupper venture will be sent along transmission lines from a company-owned wind farm in Colchester County. The minister and the CEO both insisted that the cost required to carry out this part of the operation will not result in a deficit position for the company. 

The remainder of this week's episode of Roundtable is devoted to the first joint meeting between Richmond County's two municipal units - specifically, the Municipality of the County of Richmond and St. Peter's Village Commission.

On November 2 at the Richmond Municipal Building in Arichat Village, Commission clerk Meghan Hayter and the five elected village commissioners, including chair Esther MacDonnell, met with Richmond Warden Amanda Mombourquette - whose District Four takes in St. Peter's - and the four other county councillors. . 

Speaking to LJI journalist Adam Cooke, Hayter and Mombourquette were enthusiastic about the joint meeting and the possibility of joining forces to leverage funds for capital projects in St. Peter's over the coming weeks and months. 

"Historically, the village has operated almost in a bubble," Hayter suggested. 

"We do our own thing, and the county has always been fantastic in collecting the taxes for us and things like that. But we haven't really shared a lot of information back and forth as far as what our plans were...We've basically done our own thing."

Now that the two bodies have taken a closer look at the municipality's capital building plan and discussed partnership opportunities for federal and provincial funding programs, Hayter and Mombourquette are optimistic about future prospects. 

"When work is happening in the village, we should all be cheering," Warden Mombourquette declared. "It's good for the whole county. And St. Peter's is a big retail and service centre, so we know that people all over the county rely on it."