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Darlington upgrades good for business in Burlington
July 6, 2016
Perhaps no one is more grateful for the $12.8-billion investment to upgrade Ontario’s Darlington Nuclear Generating station than Justin Parrington.
“Without the refurbishment, I wouldn’t have a job,” said the young marketing sales executive at Burlington’s MarShield, during a roundtable discussion about the nuclear project last Friday.
MarShield makes protective gear for people who work in the nuclear industry from medicine to energy production. It is one of several local companies, and among 60 in the province, to reap the economic benefits of the provincial investment to upgrade the aging power plant.
Plenty of the specialty components, supplies, engineering expertise and research needed for the eight to 10-year long project are provided by local firms such as GE Power, Laker Energy Products, Platecon Projects, Stern Laboratories, Clean Harbours Canada and CTSNA Commissioning & Technical Services.
“The number of companies that will prosper from it are tremendous,” said Keith Hoey, president and CEO of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce. The chamber, as well as its provincial counterpart, gathered some of those local vendors together last week to speak with local politicians and the people behind the massive project.
Like Parrington at MarShield, Laker Energy is already experiencing an uptick from the upgrade.
The local company has grown from 20 to 60 staff, thanks to Darlington, said company president Chris Hughes.
“These are high-quality engineering jobs, and we will be up to 75 staff in the next 15 years,” he predicted.
But, as happy as Mark Zimny, president and CEO of Promation Nuclear, is for young people like Parrington who are finding work thanks to the Darlington investment, he’s concerned about the future, especially as Ontario competes with firms in Russia and France, for business in the nuclear sector.
“How will I retain my engineers without new deals to grow the sectors,” he asked. “What’s the long-term plan?”
Eleanor McMahon, MPP for Burlington says the province’s investment in refurbishing Darlington “shows nuclear energy is back in the game.”
She assured Zimny that the province is helping generate a skilled workforce for the industry through its educational policies. McMahon said the post-secondary graduation rate in Ontario is now at 85 per cent and the promise of free post-secondary education to families earning less than $50,000 will eliminate financial barriers for students.
As well as boosting the local economy and labour force, Burlington MP Karina Gould said the investment in nuclear power, of which Darlington supplies 20 per cent for the province’s energy needs, is a low carbon option that is better and cleaner for the environment.
Indeed Roy Martin, who has spent five years preparing for the refurbishment of Darlington as the project director for Ontario Power Generation, said that 97 per cent of the electricity generated by nuclear power is smog free and greenhouse gas free, and costs half as much to produce as other power generators in the province.
“Rebuilding the reactor will give us 30, to 40, to 50 more years of clean, low-cost power generation,” said Martin.
Company: 
MarShield - a division of The MarsMetal Company
Of: Melanie Cummings Special to Burlington Post
Source: http://marshield.com/marshield-participates-in-burlington-chamber-of-commerce-and-opg-hosted-talk/
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