By Carl Clutchey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal Access to natural gas is “critical” if small municipalities like Conmee Township ever hope to expand and achieve “long-term energy security,” the township’s mayor says. In a letter last month to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Sheila Maxwell says natural gas helps “communities attract investment and enable economic growth.” “Conmee is committed to advancing local growth while ensuring access to energy infrastructure needs,” Maxwell says in the letter. The township is among rural Thunder Bay municipalities that remain without access to natural gas, even though the 14,000-kilometre Canadian Mainline gas pipeline passes through an area just north of the city as it winds across the country. Maxwell and other local municipal officials are hoping that might change as the province…