Manulife Financial, a financial services group, has completed a $117m financing on behalf of International Power Canada (IPC), a wind power developer, for the construction and long term operation of a 48.6MW Pointe-Aux-Roches wind power project in south-western Ontario.

Manulife formed a syndicate of Canadian life insurance companies to provide $60m out of the total $117m in construction and term loans for approximately 21-years term to support the Pointe-Aux-Roches wind power project.

The electricity generated from the Pointe-Aux-Roches wind farm, located in the Town of Lakeshore, on the south shore of Lake St. Clair in south-western Ontario and consisting of 27 1.8 MW wind turbines, will be sold to Ontario Power Authority under a Feed-in-Tariff Contract.

The project has received required environmental permits and approvals and IPC expects to complete the construction of the project in 2011.

International Power Canada president Mike Crawley said that the Pointe-Aux-Roches financing represents the first financing under Ontario’s new Feed-in Tariff program and Pointe-Aux-Roches is moving forward and will soon be providing clean, renewable energy to the province.