Since making their presentation to Meaford council on Tuesday October 11, many have been wondering just who Partners Energy Group are.
Information about the company has proven very difficult to come by, resulting in much speculation, and concern about a company that the municipality is considering establishing a long-term relationship with.
Kevin Alexander who represented the company for their presentation to council during which he outlined a proposal to build a waste to energy facility in Meaford, claims to have offices in Belize - where the company is based, Houston, Toronto, and Calgary.
According to Alexander the Municipality of Meaford would own 51 percent of the operation however they won't need to contribute any funds to the start up or operational costs.
The proposal indicates that the $46 million required to fund the public-private-partnership (P3) start-up and initial operation costs would be raised primarily from $40 million to be borrowed from banks and other lenders. The proposed partnership would require a 20 year agreement between the municipality, PEG, and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).
The facility would have the ability to convert a wide range of waste materials into electricity which will be sold back to the power grid.
In an effort to gather information about similar projects that PEG has worked on, The Independent searched for the office locations of the company.
A search of their address in Belize (7 Craig Street, Belize City, Belize) turned up a consulting company, AME Consulting Group, that will establish an offshore business in Belize for $699 as well as provide representation and management services.
A Houston office address listed on a one page website for a company calling themselves Partners Energy Group turns out to be a rent-by-the-hour style office service. Among the services provided by the company at that address are office and meeting space, mail boxes, and phone service.
Unable to locate the Toronto office, The Independent contacted CAO Frank Miele who had initially brought the report to council and was subsequently given approval to negotiate a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PEG, and to file an application to the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) at a cost to Meaford of $51,000 to kick start the proposed energy generation project.
“Belize is a small country with a population of less than 350,000 people, so locations and resources are often shared with few locations in the City and provide north American level of service. So you will often see resources used to the maximum, which I would fully encourage in any emerging market,” Miele told The Independent when asked about the Belize office address.
As for the Toronto office, Miele provided an address in an industrial mall complex in Concord Ontario. Concord is an unincorporated industrial community in the City of Vaughan.
Alexander also claimed in a business plan provided to council that his company currently has a project in Red Rock Ontario to construct a 30 MW waste to energy facility which would use wood waste to feed the system. Their business plan states that construction is to begin in 2011.
The Meaford Independent contacted the CAO of Red Rock to inquire about that town's experience with PEG and was told that they have had no dealings with them at all.
“There is no project of that type or any such type for that matter taking place in Red Rock,” informed Red Rock CAO Kal Pristanski.
Red Rock is a community of slightly more than 1,000 residents which is located in the Thunder Bay region.
The Independent has found a reference to a proposed biofuel co-generation plant to be built at the Red Rock Mill however that facility which was formerly a Norampac operation was shut down in 2006. In 2007 the site was purchased by Red Rock Mill Inc. with plans to reopen the plant as a plywood mill to produce flooring underlay.
The Red Rock Mill has yet to be reopened, and the company recently was slapped with fines for four convictions under the Environmental Protection Act for “failing to submit a report regarding waste stored on-site, failure to apply for approval of a sewage treatment system, and failure to provide proof of a continuous electricity supply at the mill site,” according to the ForestTalk.com website.
PEG's website, partners-energy.com appears to have been established in July of this year. The site contains very little in the way of content, and provides no case studies or other information for projects that they have participated in.
When asked by The Independent to provide a list of projects that PEG has participated in, Meaford CAO Frank Miele said that he is aware of contract negotiations between PEG and some private organizations.
“While the web page is not robust, PEG provided more in-depth information during our discussions. PEG is currently discussing contractual agreements with several private organizations in Canada which I am not at liberty to provide you at this time,” Miele told The Independent.
Though the address listed on the website is their Belize address, the phone number listed is a Toronto number which appears to be a cellular phone number. Several attempts to contact PEG using the phone number were unsuccessful, with the calls being answered by a personal voice mail message for Kevin Alexander.
A message left on the voice mail of Kevin Alexander has not been returned.
So the question still remains – who is PEG?
