Joffre firm landed grant despite G7 anti-plastic pledge

The Liberal government gave $35 million to an Alberta chemical company that makes plastic resins just one day before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to use Canada’s G7 presidency to get other nations to commit to reducing or phasing out single-use plastics.

The grant to Nova Chemicals was announced in late January as part of the Strategic Innovation Fund, a $1.26-billion, five-year business growth measure unveiled in last year’s federal budget.

The investment is meant to encourage research and development and “secure a long-term commitment to the company ’s Joffre, Alta., research and development centre,” Karl Sasseville, a spokesman for Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, wrote in an email. “More specifically, Nova Chemicals is using innovative technologies to produce cleaner resources and less undesirable byproducts stemming from production.

“This could mean making products like plastic food packaging stronger and more easily recyclable. This innovation could also be used in products and applications such as small appliances, automobiles, solvents and food and cosmetic additives.”

According to a Jan. 23 news release from the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, the money is also going toward Nova Chemicals’ $2.2-billion expansion plan in Sarnia, Ont., including a new polyethylene facility and expansion of an existing ethylene facility.

Ethylene is a main substance in polyethylene. The expanded plant will allow Nova Chemicals to produce 431,000 additional tonnes of polyethylene a year.

Nova Chemicals did not respond to requests for comment.

Polyethylene is the world’s most common plastic material. It is largely used to make plastic bags, food wrap and containers such as water and soda bottles, as well as plastic pails, pipes and bins.

An estimated eight million tonnes of plastic garbage ends up in the world’s oceans each year, with single-use plastic food containers among the biggest culprits.

A day after the grant was made public, Trudeau hosted a roundtable at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with the heads of multinationals and several international environment activists and academics.

He promised Canada would use its year as president of the G7 to get the world to address the issue of plastic pollution in the oceans.

Later that same day, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Canada was looking to get G7 members to sign a pledge to commit to reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean.