Ontario’s Aboriginal Loan Guarantee Program (ALGP) had a successful year of growth in 2015, a review in the December issue of the Financial Services Bulletin of McMillan LLP reports.
As of the release of the 2015 Ontario budget, the ALGP, introduced as part of the 2009 Ontario budget to support First Nation participation in the generation and transmission of electricity, had leveraged almost $200 million in approved loan guarantees since its inception. That was an increase of $70 million from the amount reported in the 2014 Ontario Budget.
As reported in the Province’s 2015 budget, the approved loan guarantees of the ALGP have supported the investments of eleven communities, representing more than 16,000 First Nation people. One of the beneficiaries has been the Moose Cree, who were able to take up to a 25% equity share in the $2.6 billion Lower Mattagami River hydro project. Ontario announced a $150 million expansion of the Ontario Aboriginal Loan Guarantee Program at the end of July to encourage First Nation and Métis participation in its clean energy economy.
On a smaller scale, the program guaranteed a segment of the Alderville First Nation’s equity investment in the Alderville Solar Project, Ontario’s first ground-mounted solar farm owned entirely by a First Nation community.