Nova Chemicals investing $2B in new facility, major plant expansion in Ontario
by The Canadian Press
Doubling down on its Sarnia operations, the company plans to build a new polyethylene facility and expand its existing ethylene plant, creating 145 jobs
CALGARY—Nova Chemicals Corp. says it expects to invest in excess of $2 billion in two new growth projects for its Ontario operations.
The Calgary-based plastics and chemical company says the funds will go towards building a new polyethylene facility in the Sarnia-Lambton region.
The funds will also pay for the expansion of Nova’s current Corunna site in the Southwestern Ontario area.
The expansion of the Corunna site by approximately 50 per cent will provide ethylene feedstock to the new facility, which is designed to increase Nova’s polyethylene production capacity by about 450 kilotonnes per year.
The company says site preparations are currently underway for both projects, with the aim of starting up in late 2021. The province said the two projects will create 145 new jobs and retain close to 500 positions at Nova’s existing Sarnia operations.
The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada meanwhile, said the investment could create as many as 2,000 direct and indirect jobs over the first 10 years of the project and will result in a further 25 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions intensity from 2016 levels.
“Few can appreciate just how much effort is required to realize an investment of this size in Canada today,” said Bob Masterson, president and CEO of CIAC, in a statement.
