TRAN meeting 29 · 2026-04-15 — Committee Evidence — LegisWatch

Summary

The committee was studying the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) loan for the Mersey River Wind Project. Appearing were Daniel Roscoe, Chief Executive Officer of Roswall Development Inc., and Jeff Rodgers, Managing Director of Slate Asset Management.

Daniel Roscoe testified that Roswall Development was founded in 2018 and obtained Nova Scotia’s first retail electricity licence in 2021, allowing the Mersey River wind farm to sell renewable power directly to customers, breaking Nova Scotia Power’s monopoly. He stated the project is on 20,000 acres of provincial Crown land, will generate over $1 million in annual municipal tax revenue, support over 250 construction jobs, and help reduce Nova Scotia’s dependence on imported fossil fuels. He confirmed his father-in-law is a former Liberal MP, that Michel Samson is a former Nova Scotia Liberal MLA, and that Mitchell Brison is the brother of a former federal Liberal minister, but said no one from Roswall engaged with the CIB on financing and no personal guarantees were given.

Jeff Rodgers testified that Slate Asset Management, a Canadian institutional investor, partnered with Roswall in 2022 and structured the project financing, including securing the CIB loan. He said the CIB was not the only financing provider and that the loan provided benefits given the innovative nature of the renewable-to-retail program, the first of its kind in Nova Scotia. He declined to disclose the loan’s interest rate or repayment terms, citing commercial confidentiality, and would not confirm whether the private sector had refused to fund the project, stating only that Slate investigated several financing options. He disagreed with the implication that the project was not viable without the CIB, saying the loan was a benefit but not necessarily a dependency.

The committee heard debate over a motion from Leslyn Lewis for the production of unredacted records from the CIB and Roswall Development, including communications with ministers and MPs, internal due diligence, and full loan terms. The motion was given notice but not voted on during this meeting.

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Witnesses · 2

Daniel Roscoe

Chief Executive Officer, Roswall Development Inc.

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Daniel Roscoe. I'm a professional engineer with 20 years of experience working on renewable energy projects. Roswall Development Inc. was founded in 2018 to continue work many of us have been doing to further renewable energy development in Nova Scotia and export the experiences we have gained in Nova Scotia internationally. In 2020, we started to consider working with the renewable-to-retail program under Nova Scotia's Electricity Act. Further to that effort, we applied to the utility and review board and were granted the province's first retail electricity licence in 2021. We created a new subsidiary, Renewall Energy Inc., to hold the licence and provide an alternative to Nova Scotia Power, which currently holds a monopoly on retail electricity supply. Around the same time, we began development work for the Mersey River wind farm to be the first source of generation for our licence. The Mersey River wind farm is located on roughly 20,000 acres of provincial Crown land in Queens County, on Nova Scotia's south shore. The land was previously owned by Bowater Mersey, a local mill that shut down in 2006; the land was purchased by the province at…

Full testimony ↗

Jeff Rodgers

Managing Director, Slate Asset Management

Opening remarks

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Jeff Rodgers. I'm a managing director of Slate Asset Management. I'm here to answer your questions about Slate's role in securing financing for the Mersey River wind project. Slate is an investor and asset manager focused on essential real estate and infrastructure, founded over 20 years ago and headquartered in Toronto. Over the past two decades, we have grown to become a leading global investor in essential real estate and infrastructure, serving institutional investors including Canadian pension funds and endowments. I joined Slate in 2022 and lead the firm's infrastructure investment strategy. By way of background, I have two decades of experience in finance, including the last 15 years dedicated to infrastructure investment. As a Canadian firm, Slate is focused on investing in the essential real assets that serve communities and support economic growth across this country and beyond. We are owners and operators with deep expertise across the risk spectrum of real estate and infrastructure. Slate's strategy targets companies and projects…

Transport, Infrastructure and Communities

Summary

Witnesses · 2