Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Growth, announces $100-million grant for new $2.2-billion NOVA polyethylene plant Dec. 8, 2017 (BlackburnNews.com photo)

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After years of preliminary work, NOVA Chemicals has announced it will build its new $2.2-billion polyethylene plant in St. Clair Township.

It’s the first world scale plant construction in Chemical Valley since Petrosar, now NOVA Corunna, in the 1970’s.

The plant will be built on land next to the Calgary-based company’s Corunna facility at Rokeby Line and Hwy. 40 and will be NOVA’s second Advanced SCLAIRTECH technology facility.

“We’re proud of this technology,” said Naushad Jamani, NOVA’s Senior VP of Olefins and Feedstocks. “I might say that the technology was essentially developed right here in Sarnia. We have a plant running in Joffre today that has been sold out for many years. Our consumers are actually demanding more of those products, so this is a great, great, fit for NOVA as well as the marketplace.”

He says preliminary work is already underway with start-up of the plant targeted for late 2021.

“It’s going to be a very busy four years for this area, this community. It’s going to create a lot of construction jobs and lots of opportunities for our youth as they look for job opportunities in Ontario.”

It’s expected up to 1,400 construction workers will be on site at any given time, and 150 full time workers will be hired once the project is complete.

Minister of Economic Development and Growth Brad Duguid announced that the province is investing $100-million in NOVA.

“That is, as far as I can tell, the largest grant that we’ve put forward for an investment in Ontario history, which we are very, very proud and pleased to do,” said Duguid. “That is the second biggest manufacturing investment in Ontario, in a century.”

He says it’s a game-changer for Sarnia-Lambton.

“It’s keeping this region on the map. It’s bringing a globally competitive strength back to the chemistry sector, here in Sarnia that has always been a real strength of Canada’s economy and Ontario’s manufacturing sector. Because of the impact this has on the entire manufacturing sector, there are probably tens of thousands of more jobs that are supported by the investment we are seeing here today.”

Construction of the new facility will be tied to an expansion of the Corunna site that produces ethylene which is used in the production of polyethylene.

NOVA says it will expand the Corunna cracker by about 50 percent to provide ethylene feedstock to the new polyethylene facility — which will increase NOVA’s polyethylene production capacity by approximately 950 million pounds (450 kilotons) per year.

LIVE NOVA ANNOUNCEMENT https://t.co/V9CK7wrhmI — Melanie Irwin (@MIrwinCHOKNews) December 8, 2017