A proposed aquaculture and power generation facility near McBride is now several steps closer to reality and the company proposing the project expects to begin construction in the spring if an electricity-purchasing agreement with BC Hydro comes through.

“If that happens, then everything else is financeable,” said Colin Hall, CEO of ecoTECH Energy Group.

While a purchasing agreement with BC Hydro has not yet been signed, Hall said he expects to hear back from the provincial Crown corporation in the second week of February.

Hall said ecoTECH has already begun clearing trees from the site for the proposed facility and plans to continue preparing the land for the construction of a 430,000-sq.-ft. greenhouse, a 108,000-sq.-ft. cold storage and flash-freezing facility, another 18,000-sq.-ft. vermiculture and fish-food facility and a 24-megawatt biomass power plant.

Several other developments have also made Hall optimistic that the project, which he expects to bring more than 300 jobs to the region, will come to fruition.

For one, ecoTECH announced earlier this month that it had signed an agreement with Overwaitea Food Group Limited under which the grocery store chain will purchase $61 million worth of produce and fish over a period of five years. The agreement begins once ecoTECH makes the first delivery of products which it expects to do by the spring of 2013.

In addition, Hall said he was encouraged by an economic forum held in Valemount on Jan. 16, which included representatives from BC Hydro, as well as Pat Bell, British Columbia’s Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation.

“Bell’s got a program which he’s moving all around the province,” Hall said. “They’re going to be short-cutting the red tape for companies like ours in order to make these things work.”

That program is known as the BC Jobs Plan and provincial officials met with about 200 people in Valemount in total as part of what the province describes as its “Barriere - McBride regional economic development pilot project.”

“I was actually delighted with the meeting,” Hall said afterwards. “I think everybody left with a positive feeling.”

Margaret Graine of the McBride Economic Development Office helped facilitate that meeting and also left feeling optimistic about the ecoTECH project. She, too, said the electricity purchasing agreement (EPA) with BC Hydro will be key to the company receiving the necessary financing, but noted it still may be possible for ecoTECH to “access financing without the EPA.”

In the meantime, she said another job fair is in the works for McBride. A job fair in October 2011 drew about 200 applications for the potential jobs related to the construction and eventual operation of the ecoTECH facility.

Hall now estimates that the fully operational facility would employ about 270 people on its food-production side and another 70 on its power-production side. In addition, he expects about 200 construction positions will be needed to build the facility.

There is also the potential for direct spin-off jobs, he noted, particularly in the forestry sector, since the biomass power plant would use scrap wood left over from logging operations for fuel.

“When we’re buying fuel for the power station, it can be the difference between profit and loss for the logging companies,” Hall said.

And while ecoTECH waits to hear back from BC Hydro, Hall said the company doesn’t plan to sit idle.

“We’re going to carry on clearing our site,” Hall said. “We’re going to make sure that we’re ready to lay foundation in the spring.”