Province approves Clearview wind turbines

Clearview Township will not be in court today after all.

It was expected that Clearview lawyers would be in court fighting wpd Canada’s eight industrial wind turbines near the airport, a $50 million development referred to as the Fairview Wind project.

On Feb. 11, after The Echo went to press and the day before a judicial process to force a decision from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), the ministry approved the project.

“We’re pleased the Ministry has approved the Fairview project,” said wpd spokesperson Kevin Surette in a news release. “We’re hopeful we can begin construction in relatively short order, using competitively-priced local labour and services as much as possible.”

Once constructed, Fairview will feed an estimated 39,838,000 kWh annually into the local electricity grid; equivalent to the average annual power usage of 2,276 homes.

“We [Clearview Township] are extremely disappointed that the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has granted wpd Canada a Renewable Energy Approval for the Fairview Wind Project” stated Clearview Township Mayor Christopher Vanderkruys in a news release.

The township declared itself an unwilling host to wind turbines in 2013, one step in an ongoing fight to keep the turbines out, applying “significant resources and time”.

Recently, in partnership with The Town of Collingwood, commissioned an economic impact analysis to defend the position that some of the wind turbines proposed by wpd would have an adverse economic impact on the Collingwood Regional Airport and the Clearview Aviation Business Park development adjacent to the airport.

“The municipality will be contacting our legal team to identify any possible next steps,” said Clearview CAO Steve Sage.