Gaining momentum Team of “Bio-Champions” emerges in Ontario Government CanBio and other organisations within the Canadian Bioeconomy Network have long advocated for the reduction of barriers to bioeconomy project implementation resulting from outdated regulations, most of which are at the provincial level. It is therefore extremely gratifying to see the emergence of a team of bio-champions in Ontario. Kathleen McFadden, ADM, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry outlined how the MNRF is taking a multi-ministry and multi-partner approach to improve the business and policy environment for the use of solid biomass fuels for heat. The Ontario Provincial Policy Statement’s definition of renewable energy now includes heat and/or cooling, in addition to generating electricity. A Guideline for Control of Air Emissions from Large Wood-Fired Combustors with heat capacities of 3MW or greater has been posted. An interim Guideline for systems less than 3MW has been issued and work continues to refine the guideline. A bioheat “Community of Practice” has been created to foster knowledge about bioheat systems. The Province is working with others at the national level to support biomass heat, focussing on the adoption of ISO solid biomass standards for Canada.This was followed up by a meeting and Biomass Heat Facility Tour in the Kingston/ Napanee area at the end of October by twelve representatives from Ontario ministries and a federal government agency, FedNor. The ministries included those responsible for environmental regulations, natural resources and forestry, agriculture and rural affairs, building codes, aboriginal affairs, economic development and education. The tour visited: The North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne to see a school heated with wood pellets using a system installed by Viessmann Manufacturing. The bio-heat system is a 950kw boiler that will heat 86,000 square feet. Friendly Fires in Kingston which provides sales and service of residential pellet stoves, wood stoves and pellet boilers. Forman Farms in Seeley’s Bay with a greenhouse heated by wood/agri pellets produced by a pellet mill on the farm and where biomass crops are grown. The projects were very interesting but what was even more important was the exchange of views between the project proponents and the government representatives. The lead question in each case was “how could the Ontario government have helped your project more, and what can we do now?” The project owners were genuinely astonished at how positive the group was in moving forward with suggestions for policy and regulatory improvement. For instance, Forman Farms which had purchased a biomass chipper, wanted to know how the process of permitting could be sped up to allow them to chip “on site” at various locations. While a “mobile permit” for the machine was the answer, it would take up to a year to obtain. Representatives of the North Addington Education Centre and Viessmann explained how difficult it had been to comply with all the environmental regulations for the project but now that it was complete it would provide hard data from monitoring the systems and then encourage other projects to move forward. The owner of Friendly Fires was encouraged by the policy that building permits now required CSA-approved wood stoves in Ontario. Overall, it was an eye-opening day on how to aggressively encourage more bioeconomy projects in Ontario.