A acant road allowance near McLaughlin Street could be transformed into a bioenergy garden this summer.
Mayor Damian Goulbourne planted the seeds for the unique community development project at a conference seeking interest from possible public and private partners from across Niagara.
The city and Welland Hydro are already on board, Goulbourne said at the conference March 27, acting as the facilitators for the project that will see the distressed community plant and harvest sunflower or canola plants, with the crop being sold as a bioenergy product and the profits going back into the community.
"It's a matter of who else wants to join us and help us do it," said the mayor, who said he hoped an ad hoc committee could be established on the program.
Invited guests to the conference, which included representatives from the city, the Region, Venture Niagara, agricultural and energy sectors, the United Way, various chambers of commerce and the media, heard via video conference from Pittsburgh about the model from which the project will be based from a spokesperson for GTECH (Growth Through Energy and Community Health).
The social enterprise, not-for-profit corporation utilizes vacant lots in urban areas by growing agriculture and selling it for biofuel or biodiesel, helping the environment, empowering communities and spreading prosperity, said GTECH CEO and co-founder Andrew Butcher.
"The real problem with vacancy is that no one owns the problem," Butcher said. "The challenge is how can we catalyze vacant space into positive, community assets."
Butcher and his team initially laid out the idea two years ago in Pittsburgh, a declining steel town much like Welland. The model has proven to be successful on vacant lots and brownfields, and the group is extending its work into New Orleans this spring.
In fact, GTECH manages 12 acres of projects in four communities and eight different sites, said Butcher.
In Niagara, Goulbourne approached the St. Catharines-based Resource Association for Teens (RAFT) executive director Mike Lethby after learning about GTECH.
Lethby, who works with students in the McLaughlin area through the RAFT, has been researching the idea for the past four months and thinks it's a perfect fit for Niagara.
He said the program could lay the groundwork for a green energy business cluster, which would greatly help youth retention efforts in the area.
"It's up-and-coming and we're just kind of at the crest," Lethby said. "Usually we're left behind but I think we could ride this wave a bit."
There are a lot of opportunities in the Golden Horseshoe to link the program to, he said, such as a biodiesel plant in Burlington and a biogas plant in Hamilton. There's even a farmer in Port Colborne who specializes in bioenergy, said Lethby.
Goulbourne said Niagara's wine industry is an example of taking agriculture and adding value to it. The region's battered manufacturing sector could even see growth with the manufacturing of biofuel-based products.
The city has set aside $130,000 for co-generation funding, said Goulbourne, showing the city's proactive stance on new energy. Butcher said that bioscience, and particularly bioenergy, is an industry distressed communities need to invest in.
"As you know, the opportunities for growth in the green economy is getting stimulated faster than anyone can count the numbers," he said.
McLaughlin Street, tucked away in the city's southeast side, is a community that needs the project, said Goulbourne. Children from low-income families need hope after growing up around social housing and barbed wire fences.
The money from the harvest goes back into the community, said the mayor, even if it's only $500.
If it proves successful, it could be spread elsewhere, such as the old Atlas property on East Main Street, which Goulbourne called his "dream...(to) have a sunflower garden right in the downtown core."
The idea was met with positive response. Patrick Robson, director of integrated community planning with the Region said the project was "exactly the kind of thinking that is required."
"There's more than 'This is a nice thing to do.' This is very real," said Robson.
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