While his visit to Sault Ste. Marie on Friday may have appeared random to some, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had plenty to celebrate with locals on a day that took him to three different spots around town.
Paying his fourth visit to Sault Ste. Marie since being elected in 2015, Trudeau kicked off his visit at the PUC Services headquarters where he met with officials to learn more about and celebrate the launch of the Sault Smart Grid – Canada’s first community-wide smart grid system.
The $34-million project aims to modernize and enhance the way electricity is delivered to Sault Ste. Marie while providing energy savings for customers and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
After getting a behind-the-scenes look on how the smart grid works, Trudeau headed down the hall to meet and spend time with workers and their families as part of PUC’s “bring your kids to work day.”
Speaking to those employees and their kids following a meet-and-greet, Trudeau said the establishment of the smart grid is an inspiring testament to the innovative efforts that Sault Ste. Marie has worked hard to achieve.
“What they have been doing here at PUC matters,” he said. “It doesn’t just matter for you, or for the future of this community, but it matters for the future of Canada. The leadership that the Sault has shown, and the leadership that PUC has shown…is enormous. The fact you do it in a way where it’s actually bringing down costs to consumers, and to homeowners across this city, is and should be an inspiration to communities right across the country.”
Acknowledging that the world is an incredibly “complicated” and “sometimes crazy place,” Trudeau noted that building towards a brighter future is imperative, commending the efforts being made by locals who he said are doing just that.
“It’s a community coming together, optimistic and ambitious enough to invest in itself and invest in the future,” he said. “That’s paying off, and in really big ways. Once you have a grid like this, we’re better able to adjust for the future.”
PUC president and CEO Robert Brewer said the project is an example of what the Sault can achieve when everyone works together towards a common goal.
“The Sault Smart Grid brings many benefits to our community,” he said. “We’re seeing energy savings at about 2.7 per cent, precisely what we thought we would get. We’re seeing shorter outages, fewer people impacted, and we’re seeing a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as a result. This project has immediately transformed our grid into a modernized grid that will help us support the future of PUC and the future of Sault Ste. Marie.”
Trudeau echoed the importance of projects like the smart grid in the ongoing fight against climate change.
“There’s still people out there that pretend climate change isn’t happening, and we’ll deal with it one day in the future when it gets much worse,” he said. “I’m sorry, people in the Sault have seen the forest fires from this past summer. You’ve seen the extreme weather events; the heat waves.”
“You can’t look at our kids and say, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be alright, we’ll let you fight climate change 10 or 20 years from now because we can’t be bothered now.’ Nobody wants to say that. We need to be taking care of our kids now, and we have to be making sure the future is strong too.”
Prior to a ribbon cutting ceremony, Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and Sault MP Terry Sheehan said they were proud to be part of Friday’s celebration.
“I’m really excited to see it move forward,” Shoemaker said. “The smart grid project solidifies Sault Ste. Marie’s position as a leader in the energy industry. We do not call ourselves the North American capital of alternative energy for nothing.”
“The economy and the environment go together – they’re not separate,” Sheehan added. “This is a perfect example when the federal government works with the municipality to fight climate change, to create critical infrastructure that is going to be utilized today and tomorrow and is going to continue to make Sault Ste. Marie the great place it is to work, play, and live.”
Following the ceremony at PUC, Trudeau headed to the site of the Legion's housing development for a tour.
Soon to house veterans, their families, as well as Legion members, the 107-unit building will have one- and two-bedroom units — each with a balcony. Amenities are slated to include limited underground parking, a gym, arts and craft rooms, and a rooftop patio.
The Prime Minister concluded his visit to Sault Ste. Marie at the Marconi Cultural Event Centre, which is currently the temporary home for Legion Branch 25 members. He met with several of those veterans and members to discuss the exciting developments being made at their future home on Great Northern Road.
SooToday will have more coverage of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit throughout the weekend.