Ottawa developer Windmill Developments has just received a $60M grant to help clean up the Zibi development site. The company has plans for a $1.2B new community planned on the former Domtar lands that occupy the Albert and Chaudière Islands. Windmill Development Group applied for the grant under the city's Brownfields program.
Mayor Watson and the city's finance committee voted in favour of the grant.
"When the build out is complete, they'll be paying $18M in taxes. So it's not only good on an economic point of view...lots of construction jobs and pay back to the city of Ottawa. More importantly it's very good for the environment because we're spending a lot of money cleaning up the Ottawa river and yet for us to ignore this contamination for the last 200 years...to seep into the river...doesn't make any sense." says mayor Jim Watson.
It's a record amount of money awarded under the rebate program, city council still must approve it.
