Donation will help Batchawana Fire and Rescue

NEWS RELEASE
BATCHAWANA FIRE AND RESCUE
*************************
On Jan. 8, 2020, Fire Chief Jeremy Jones and (Acting) Deputy Chief Ian VanDerSwan of the Batchawana Fire & Rescue received a donation of $15,000 from Evolugen, the new identity for Brookfield Renewable in Canada.

Evolugen would like to say thank you to the volunteer members of this fire department for their dedication and countless hours serving this vast rural area on the north shore of Lake Superior.

Batchawana Bay is a small community on the north shore of Lake Superior, about 90 kilometers northwest of Sault Ste Marie. Its volunteer fire department plays a key role in public safety by providing emergency response services to the community as well as approximately 100 kilometers of the Highway 17 corridor. The department is fully equipped to provide first response, auto extrication, and fire duties.

This donation comes from an annual fundraising event that is hosted by Evolugen and held in Gatineau, Que. By bringing together its business partners, service providers, and employees, Evolugen raises funds to support community organizations that improve the lives of people in areas close to its operations. During 2019 in Ontario, Evolugen chose to support local volunteer fire departments such as Batchawana Fire & Rescue.

“Being in an unorganized township, we are not sharing the same tax base for supporting a fire department as municipalities would have by default. Much of our funding for trucks and equipment comes from local fund-raising events such as annual fish fries, and motor vehicle or forest fire protection callouts. We are very grateful for this substantial donation that has come at a perfect time for our upcoming infrastructure costs”, said Fire Chief Jeremy Jones.

This donation will go towards the much-needed replacement of our primary fire hall heating furnaces. The new furnaces will provide a much higher efficiency and will substantially reduce our heating costs.

This upgrade will also provide a much-improved heating comfort for our community, as the hall is a designated community shelter in event of power failure or other area emergencies. We would like to remind the community that we have a generator back-up system and our facility is always an option for residents of the Batchawana Bay area.

“Evolugen is proud to support the Batchawana Fire Rescue and its commitment to emergency prevention and response for the benefit of everyone living, working, or travelling on the north shore of Lake Superior. Thank you for always being ready to help our families, friends, neighbors and fellow community members”, said Claude Samson, Senior Operations Manager at Evolugen.

Evolugen is a renewable power producer that values active local involvement and partnerships in the communities in which it operates. In Algoma, it manages generating stations on the Michipicoten, Magpie, Montreal, St. Mary’s, and Mississagi rivers, as well as a wind farm west of Sault Ste Marie.

*************************