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Biodigester now on life support All financial options exhausted and $15 million in debt, Town will have to “loan” another $300K to keep the Sobie Road site operational By Mike Williscraft NewsNow With $15 million in liabilities and the need for an immediate $300,000 from the Town of Grimsby to stay afloat, the biodigester project is on life support. The stark reality of financial doom lay over Grimsby’s council chamber like a blanket Monday night as a long-awaited status report regarding Grimsby Energy’s biodigester project was rolled out by new GEI chair Delight Davoli. It was not pretty. It was downright ugly, in fact. Regarding virtually all of the current GEI debt, Davoli told council, “We have no way to pay” and “no reasonable prospects for being able to do so.” “This is really serious. It breaks my heart to think of where this may be going. The last six weeks have been the saddest six weeks of my life.”
With a total overall debt of $15.2 million now, this chart outlines the state of debt for Grimsby Energy Inc. as of Dec. 31, 2017. Behind the sweeping results of the Oct. 22 election, the newly installed council set about fulfilling its election promise of getting to the bottom of biodigester woes. A new board - with Davoli as chairperson, with Jim Howden. Rob Hattin and Coun. Lianne Vardy - set about their research immediately after being put in place by the
new Grimsby Council. Council acts on behalf of the shareholder of the utility. The new board members did not need to dig deep before they found the need for action was crucial and immediate. Simply, all financial avenues have been exhausted and another infusion of more than $300,000 is needed over the next few
months just to keep the Sobie Road site operational. Davoli noted $100,000 would be needed for every month the facility continues to operate after March. “Council needs to understand, money is essential for every option we have, even if we look to sell, lease or decommission,” said Davoli. See DEBT, Page 2
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Editorial
With dire biodigester details now released, what to do? With the status report and its initial findings of a
detailed review of all things biodigester now public, Grimsby council is left with precious little in terms of options and will not be able to make a silk purse from this sow’s ear. The financial water is very deep, but the scope, depth and extensive operating losses are much larger than even the most pessimistic in Town could have foretold - to say nothing of horrible business practices. Financial liabilities in excess of $15 million. ALL the proceeds from the $9 million sale of its 25 per cent in shares in NRBN (a fibre optics company) gone! Revenue from the sale was all shifted from one hydro holding to another to float biodigester costs. In total, $9.7 million was “borrowed” by Grimsby Energy from the utility’s other hydro companies. “This amount will never be repaid”. The road map to how the Town and its hydro company has arrived at this place has been painstakingly laid out time and again in these pages with absolutely no effect on the previous council, which continued to work in the absolute opposite direction to how any democratically elected body should work – namely, in the best interests of those who elected them. Stonewalling information, ignoring pleas from the one councillor, Dave Kadwell, who continually pushed for a public accounting of this ridiculous endeavour, and providing half truths (at the very best) when cornered as a result of consealed information coming to light...this was the recipe for disaster. And make no mistake, this is a disaster of epic proportion for a municipality the size of Grimsby. The question is not who is responsible. That is clear. The management board of Grimsby Energy, which oversaw the biodigester - up to Dec. 3 of last year was Shaffee Bacchus, Sean Straughan, Bob Bentley, Carolyn Mullins and Steve Berry. The board of Holdco2 was Bacchus, Bentley, Mullins, Berry and Michelle Seaborn. The question is, are or can these people be made accountable for the near-bankrupt state of Grimsby Energy? The mismanagement of this project was staggeringly inept from horrible tracking of financials to equipment being leased that was never used. All should pity this new council for the job they face, but they are attacking it quickly and correctly. Godspeed. M.W.