Windmill decision maddening, disheartening: Mayor
Clearview Township’s fight against wind turbines was derailed last week after it was announced the Fairview Wind Project received provincial approval.
Clearview Township Mayor Chris Vanderkruys described the outcome as maddening and disheartening.
“We are angry,” said Vanderkruys. “They cost you and me and everyone else a lot of money and didn’t give any regard to our consequences.”
It was expected that Clearview lawyers would be in court Feb. 12 fighting wpd Canada’s eight industrial wind turbines near the airport, a $50 million development.
On Feb. 11, after The Echo went to press and the day before the 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, said wpd.
“I am very disappointed in the minister’s decision,” said Vanderkruys, “mainly because when we first asked about intervener status and our lawyers talked to the ministry… at that point you think they would have hinted that there was no use because between Collingwood and ourselves, we just wasted how much?”
CAO Steve Sage said it is very difficult to say exactly how much the township has spent fighting the wind turbines “due to the extended timeline that involved hundreds of staff hours”.
After adding up invoices he estimates the township has incurred about $70,000 in legal fees and consulting fees, double that amount when factoring in staff time.
“The government just made us waste that money,” said Vanderkruys. “Our tax dollars were wasted because they made a decision a day before the hearing. They didn’t even want to hear what we had to say… It certainly shows you how some government still doesn’t listen to the people.”
He said he sees little opportunity for recourse with the Liberal government in power.
“They have no regard for the lower municipalities,” said Vanderkruys.
When asked what is the next step, he said, the township didn’t even get through the first step. “When you think of it, it’s like they don’t care,” he said. “The bigger picture is they were shoving this through whether we liked it or not.”
The township declared itself an unwilling host to wind turbines in 2013, one step in an ongoing fight to keep the turbines out. Recently, in partnership with The Town of Collingwood, it 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 proposed Clearview Aviation Business Park development adjacent to the airport.
The ministry has approved the wpd project subject to prescriptive conditions designed to ensure the safety of pilots who may fly into Collingwood Regional Airport or Stayner Airfield, said wpd. Regulations, requirements, and conditions imposed by NAV CANADA, Transport Canada, and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (Ontario) will be implemented as required.
“Canada has an enviable aviation safety record because a proper process has been put in place to evaluate any new and/or changing circumstances, and regulating bodies have been put in place to ensure the system works,” said Surette. “Airport facilities and authorities throughout the world have followed this well-established process to continue to ensure safety in aviation.”
The approval from MOECC also includes conditions addressing matters brought forward during the application review, including the environment and acoustic concerns.
If the township were to appeal the decision, it would have to launch the process by the end of next week but the mayor and members of council are heading to the OGRA/ROMA Combined Conference in Toronto Feb. 21-24.
Collingwood is having a meeting about it this week. Vanderkruys said the outcome could prompt him to call a special meeting to decide whether or not to launch the appeal.
