Canadian coal mining started in New Brunswick and also occurred in Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. The United States has been a major supplier for the industrial regions of Ontario. By 2000 about 19% of Canada's energy was supplied by coal, much of it imported from the U.S while Eastern Canadian ports import considerable coal from Venezuela. New Brunswick The first coal mining in North America began in New Brunswick, Canada, in the early 1600s. Coal was found by French explorers and fur traders along the shores of Grand Lake where rivers and erosion had exposed the coal. Small amounts of coal were dug from surface deposits and tunnels dug into the coal seams, and this coal supplied Fort Saint Marie, built by the French about 1632 at the mouth of the Saint John River. The French sold coal to the British colony at Boston as early as 1639. Due to this earliest export of coal in North America, Grand Lake has been recognized as a Canadian Historic Site . Coal mining expanded after the British took control of the area in the mid 1700s and encouraged permanent settlements in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario by British Loyalists. Beginning in 1765, over 11,000 Loyalists settled in N.B., most along the lower 100 miles of the Saint John River and around Grand Lake. Approximately 200,000 tons of coal were dug at Grand Lake between 1639 and 1887 using surface collection, vertical shafts and the room and pillar system. By 1920, the use of draglines and other modern equipment made strip mining possible and the privately owned Grand Lake area mines produced over 200,000 tons per year. Most of this coal was used by the railroad and large businesses. By 1936, a coal-burning electric power generating plant at Newcastle Creek was operating with two 33,000 volt lines going to Fredericton and one 66,000 volt line going to Marysville. By 1950, coal production at Grand Lake often reached 1 million tons per year. In 1969, all the privately owned Grand Lake area coal companies and approximately 1,000 employees were consolidated into one provincial government controlled company named N.B. Coal Ltd.. In 2009, the increasing availability of oil and environmental concerns with coal use caused the closing of the Grand Lake coal mines and New Brunswick's coal mining industry. Nova Scotia The first coal mining in Nova Scotia began in