The New York Power Authority claims that its cheap power and financial investments helped create 140 jobs in Canton and Gouverneur last year.

“We made real and meaningful progress on multiple fronts during 2014 in spurring job commitments and hundreds of millions of dollars in capital investments from our low-cost hydropower and other economic power sources,” said John R. Koelmel, NYPA chairman in a prepared statement.

In Northern New York, allocations of St. Lawrence Preservation Power to two businesses—Corning, in Canton, and St. Lawrence Zinc Co., in Gouverneur—were tied to the creation of 140 jobs and more than $55 million in capital investments.

The Northern New York Power Proceeds Allocation Act was a key element in an agreement between NYPA and the host communities of the St. Lawrence-FDR project, as part of a 10-year review of a settlement agreement for the project’s 2003 federal relicensing. Other agreed-to provisions to emerge from the review include up to $5 million in NYPA funding for an economic development study to assist the communities to identify and attract businesses and industries and the use of temporarily relinquished hydropower to reduce electricity costs for North Country businesses and farms by $10 million a year, for up to three years.

Apart from the agreement with the host communities, more immediate benefits resulted from the creation in August of the North Country Economic Development Fund to provide low-cost loans to expanding businesses in the region. The $10 million fund, which resulted from a long-term power contract between NYPA and Alcoa, led to loans totaling $725,000 to two businesses, which agreed to add 84 jobs, retain 110 existing positions and undertake capital investments of about $6 million, NYPA said.

In late December, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that will make it possible for the net earnings of a block of up to 20 megawatts of St. Lawrence-FDR power to be used for awards to job-creating businesses in St. Lawrence County. Up to $2 million is expected to result annually and be available to qualified businesses for capital investments and new jobs.

The deal was lambasted by many local leaders as inadequate, despite the fact that most of them later voted in favor of it. The main concern is that there isn’t enough money in the area to sue NYPA and the state.

Mark Scott, a former Waddington town supervisor who used to be on the Local Government Task Force, told several local boards of trustees and town councils that most of what NYPA offered are things they have to do anyways, such as a shoreline stabilization review, which is required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He also said that NYPA may be dishing out $5 million for a study, but none of the local communities have the financial means to implement it.

Other local leaders said the deal isn’t equitable with what NYPA gives in western New York, where the Niagara Power Project doesn’t impact anywhere near as much shoreline, but the host communities get more out of it.

According to NYPAs figures, their deals total $78 million in investments in the North Country, creating 224 jobs and retaining 110.

In 2014, the NYPA trustees made Niagara hydropower awards to 11 Buffalo-Niagara businesses to create 420 jobs and spur $210 million in capital investments in a region where a large percentage of the manufacturing jobs are directly tied to the facility’s low-cost power. The firms benefiting include such stalwarts as Moog, Geico, Goodyear Dunlop, Ford and the 3M Company. New hydropower allocations in 2014 included those to Ingram Micro Inc., Durez Corp., Graphic Controls Acquisition Corp., and Trinity Packaging Corp., NYPA said.

Other economic-development programs by NYPA include the Western New York Power Proceeds initiative, in which the net earnings from unutilized Niagara hydropower fund economic development awards to businesses in the region. In 2014, the NYPA trustees approved more than $8 million in awards in return for commitments by the recipients to retain nearly 1,600 jobs and create more than 150 jobs, NYPA said.

Further benefits of the proceeds program for Western New York’s economy were $5 million in awards announced in October to 11 startup businesses in Buffalo as the culmination of an extensive competition known as 43North, which began with more than 2,600 qualified entrants. The NYPA trustees’ approval in May 2013 of $5.4 million in funding made the competition possible, NYPA said.

Late in 2014, the trustees approved $6 million of additional proceeds funding for a second 43North competition, to be held this year, to further build on the momentum for galvanizing business startups in the Buffalo-Niagara region. The funding for the 43North competition was one of the dimensions of proceeds awards by NYPA to some 28 enterprises since 2013, NYPA said.

According to NYPAs figures, their deals total $229.4 million in western New York investments, creating 570 jobs and retaining 1,600.