Del Mastro plans to build solar farm in Cuba
Former Peterborough Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro and his cousin David Del Mastro have announced plans to build a solar farm in Cuba – even though their earlier plan to build one in Barbados never got off the ground.
The Del Mastros are in business together: David is president and CEO of Deltro Group, and Dean is vice-president and chief financial officer.
In late 2015, they announced they would be building a $40-million solar panel manufacturing plant and solar farm in Barbados. It was expected open in the spring of 2016.
But Barbadian media reported on Wednesday that it was never built, though Del Mastro told reporters there this week that it’s still in the works–andthat
Deltro has plans for yet another solar farm in
Cuba.
Dean Del
Mastro couldn’t be reached for comment
Friday.
He’s on bail these days, having applied to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada his conviction for overspending on his election campaign in 2008 and taking steps to cover it up.
In February, Del Mastro told Barbadian reporters that Deltro had received the municipal approvals needed to allow construction to begin construction on the solar farm in Barbados.
But he said the project was delayed because $4 million in tariffs had been placed on the manufacturing line that he’d had shipped to the island.
Meanwhile, a press release issued this week by DeltroGroup states that the firm has been awarded a new contract to build, own and operate a similar solar farm in north western Cuba.
The release doesn’t say exactly where in Cuba this farm will be located–it only states that construction on the project is expected to begin in January.
David Del Mastro states in the release that the idea is to provide cleaner energy to Cuba.
The press release mentions that the Barbados solar operation hasn’ t been built yet, but it will be: “These plans remain in place, as does Deltro’s commitment to see them through over the coming months,” it states.
Del tro also had a separate release this week announcing that its subsidiary, Del tr o Energy, is nearly done building a battery storage facility in Toronto.
The release states that the new Del tr o-operated facility will be connected to a Toronto Hydro sub station, and it’s designed to help the flow of electricity on power lines in times of shortage.
The facility is expected to be completed early in 2018, the release states.
The facility is co-owned by Deltro, states the release, along with other investors.
One investor is called EPAL, a joint venture between U.K.-based EnergyPro Ltd. and Indian stateowned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. The other investor is Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché.
It’ s not the first time the Del M as tro name has been linked with the battery business. Dean Del Mastro announced in 2008 that he had a deal to bring a battery-manufacturing plant to Peterborough – but the plan fell through.
Del Mast row as still M Pat the time he made the announcement, just a few days away from the federal election in October 2008.
He said the plant would manufacture batteries for cellphone towers, and eventually expand to making batteries for hybrid vehicles.
But by 2013, Hybrid Technologies Inc. had decided against locating in Peterborough and looked to Canada’s East Coast instead, saying federal money to build the plan there didn’t materialize.
Meanwhile, Del Mastro is still looking to take his conviction on overspending in the 2008 election campaign to the highest court in the land.
Earlier this week, he submitted a full application for appeal to the Supreme-Court.
Del Mast ro went to jail in September after his appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal was unanimously rejected by a panel of three judges.
He spent nine days in jail in September, on top of one day when he was first convicted, in the early summer of 2016, another six days after losing his divisional court appeal, plus one more day while his Ontario Court of Appeal appeal was being heard.
That’s a total of 17 days spent in jail; he has been released on bail for every appeal.
Del Mastro was found guilty in 2014 and was sentenced in 2015 to 30 days in jail and four months of house arrest.
At issue was a $21,000 cheque he wrote to his voter-calling firm, Holinshed.
The president of Holinshed, Frank Hall, testified at trial that the cheque was meant to cover voter-calling. He also said Del Mas tr oh ad asked him to back date the invoices so it appeared the work had been done outside the election period.
But the defence had argued that Del Mast ron ever got those services from Holinshed, so the expense shouldn’t count.
The trial judge found Del M as tro guilty of overspending on his election campaign and of taking steps to cover it up, and he lost two subsequent appeals.
It was unclear this week whether the Supreme Court of Canada will hear his case.