{"id":502968,"date":"2026-02-27T11:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/502968\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:57:09","slug":"ottawa-wants-n-s-to-secure-private-partners-before-it-will-invest-in-wind-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/502968\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa wants N.S. to secure private partners before it will invest in Wind West"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The federal government is continuing to show interest in Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston\u2019s ambitious offshore wind energy plan, but Ottawa will not declare it a project of national interest until partners from the private sector sign on.<\/p>\n

Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said the Major Projects Office needs to see that industry is ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s when their decision would be to move it from a strategy to an individual project,\u201d Hodgson said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Hodgson was taking media questions at an announcement about a loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank for an onshore wind project in Nova Scotia<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Houston wants to see a massive buildout of offshore wind projects in the coming years and a transmission line to enable export. He\u2019s dubbed the project Wind West and his government has estimated it would cost $40 billion for 60-gigawatts of turbines and $20 billion for transmission cables.<\/p>\n

The premier has said he wants Ottawa to provide tax credits, low-interest financing and direct investment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney indicated last fall that Wind West could make his major projects list, but said it needed more work before it would be approved. <\/p>\n

\"ANova Scotia Premier Tim Houston wants Ottawa to invest in a transmission line to export offshore wind energy to the rest of Canada and the United States. (Jeorge Sadi\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s position on backing Wind West underscores a sequencing dilemma for Houston\u2019s project, with different potential partners all waiting for each other to commit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Energy Regulator started a process last year to pre-qualify potential developers and is expected to open a call for bids this year. They won\u2019t say how many, if any, companies have pre-qualified.<\/p>\n

French firm Q Energy has acknowledged that it applied and company officials visited the province last month<\/a> to talk about their aspirations to build in Nova Scotia waters. But CEO Junu Lee said he would want to see transmission infrastructure in the works before making major investments in a wind farm.<\/p>\n

Also marked at Thursday\u2019s event was a contribution from Hodgson\u2019s department to a feasibility study for Wind West. Natural Resources Canada is giving nearly $5 million to Net Zero Atlantic to conduct the work. The province is also putting in money and in-kind contributions valued at $700,000.<\/p>\n

Houston said getting funding for the study marks \u201ca really big moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The main constraint on [Wind West] is not the wind, the wind is there and it blows a lot. The constraint would be where is the power going to go and how are we going to move it, so that’s what this is about today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Houston tabled a bill in the legislature that lays the groundwork for how the province would make revenue from offshore wind projects<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The bill proposes a four per cent royalty on gross revenue, but only after a decade of operation. For the first ten years operators would pay a smaller fee based on their turbines’ capacity. Houston said he did not want to scare developers away with high fees.<\/p>\n

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