Investing in New Brunswick? It depends on us all.
This sponsored commentary is from Gilles Volpé, general manager of Enbridge Gas New Brunswick. Submitted commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Huddle.
I love being part of something big.
It’s what I loved about those early days of my career at NBTel and it’s why I came to Enbridge Gas New Brunswick. I truly do believe that if you’re going to live in New Brunswick, we all have a responsibility to make it better.
I think it’s in Maritimers’ DNA and it’s one of the things I love about living on the East Coast.
Need people to sponsor Syrian refugees? Families and groups of friends are there to welcome them in.
Need to help kids learn to read? Volunteers are in our schools providing one-on-one tutoring.
Want to start a business? You’ve got your choice of people willing to share their expertise with you over a coffee.
New Brunswickers have proven over and over that they are willing to invest in each other. I believe as business leaders, we do this best when we bring capital investment to our region.
That’s my big dream for Enbridge Gas New Brunswick as we look towards the future in New Brunswick: to further develop potential opportunities here.
As anyone in sales or business development will tell you, it’s always easier to create opportunities with people you’re already doing business with than going out to find something new.
Right now New Brunswick needs to do both: attract investment to our province via existing business ventures as well as new ventures.
Over the past couple of years we have worked to guarantee our customers access to safe, reliable and versatile energy.
Enbridge has, to date, invested over $500 million in New Brunswick to develop the public natural gas system without any government capital, subsidies or tax breaks. We also continue to strive to provide our customers with affordable access to the energy they need.
Today the overall annual average cost of natural gas for typical homeowners is 20 percent less than electricity.
In May, Enbridge Gas New Brunswick will also be lowering commercial natural gas rates. Our team worked to lower operating costs and to secure a long-term supply of natural gas for our customers.
In addition Enbridge Inc. our parent company and one of the largest energy distribution companies in North America is committed to natural gas distribution growth, and to the future of a diversified energy market.
Enbridge Inc. plans to invest over $5 billion over the next five years in renewable energy projects. Earlier this month, executives from some of world’s largest and most influential sustainable businesses attended the GLOBE 2016 conference in Vancouver to talk about how to leverage markets and innovation to create business opportunities and take action to address our environmental challenges, most notably the changing climate. Enbridge Inc. CEO Al Monaco was there and made headlines when he said our company is looking beyond Canada’s oil sands.
As a corporation Enbridge Inc. is committed to the transition to a lower carbon future and to be a green energy leader – and I want New Brunswick to be a part of that.
We all know our province needs capital investment. We can see it in the closed shops in our downtowns, in the news of friends and family moving away for work and the feeling that New Brunswick is being passed over.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We need to seize the opportunities in front of us, pivot our economy towards one driven by technology and innovation, and aggressively pursue capital investment in lower carbon energy solutions.
Let’s leverage what is here in New Brunswick.
And let’s say yes.
Yes to new investment.
Yes to renewables and other low carbon energy solutions.
Yes to a secure energy future.
It’s how we’ll make life better for everyone in New Brunswick.
It’s why I’m here, how about you?