A site in Northern New Brunswick has been selected for a new explosives factory that, when operational, is hoping to fill the current shortage of explosives for Canada and its NATO partners.A 1,500-acre parcel of Crown land near Belledune has been selected as the future home for the factory, which is expected to provide 500 construction jobs and 250 permanent jobs in its first phase and has the potential to bring in even more if future phases are undertaken.The factory will be coming into existence as a result of multi-year courting from the current provincial government, which has long proposed Northern New Brunswick as a potential site for the facility.The project is a partnership between Canadian company Nalagx and French explosives manufacturer Eurenco, Europe's largest producer of explosives and propellent.The first phase of the project is valued at roughly $600 million, with the future plan to expand and become Canada's largest explosives factory, providing Canada and its NATO allies with a new producer of explosives..The factory will produce TNT, which will be used in military hardware, as well as propellant and smaller-scale explosives to be used in mining and construction industries.The CEO of Nalagx, former Gaspésie region MP Patrick Gagnon, said New Brunswick was selected as the location for the plant due to its transportation links as well as the hard work the provincial government put in to pitching the potential location.The location was selected due to its proximity to the Port of Belledune as well as the availability of railroads, which will be used to ship products around the world."This would really put Belledune, at least northern New Brunswick, on a similar footing as aerospace is for Montreal, as the naval maritime business is for Halifax or Nova Scotia," Gagnon said in an interview with Brunswick News."This all came together based on the merits of the province,” he added.The construction of the facility would add to New Brunswick's already sizable military infrastructure, with the province also hosting Eastern Canada's largest military base, CFB Gagetown..The announcement of the factory comes as Canada increasingly moves to shore up its domestic defence industry and position itself as a major defence partner to NATO and the European Union.The involvement of a major European partner like Eurenco also highlights the federal government's commitment to bolstering its defence cooperation with European partners.NATO has suffered from a significant munitions shortage, so the construction of a facility like this will be music to the ears of allied militaries who are in desperate need for explosives.The company has said that it plans to announce an "operating partner" in the coming months and will begin engineering work by Christmas.Construction is hoped to begin by the middle of the coming year, with the facility being completed by 2030.
