News Story of the Year: wpd approval revoked
It is difficult to say which is the biggest news story this year; This community has been divided on issues of housing developments, Steer, the fountain and seniors housing. The impending closure of the Creemore branch of TD Bank was certainly a cause that united the community and sent people into action.
TD Bank officials have since said a bank machine will remain in the village. Hopefully we will learn more at an upcoming public meeting on Feb. 22.
While news of the bank’s closure is the biggest news to hit Creemore in recent months, the victory over the wind turbines is worth noting as the resolution of an ongoing news story that has been unfolding since 2012.
An Environmental Review Tribunal recommended in August the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) approval of eight 500-foot wind turbines near two Clearview aerodromes be revoked.
In February 2016, the day before a judicial process to force a decision from MOECC, approved the project; eight 500-foot wind turbines, a $50 million development referred to as the Fairview Wind project, located west of Stayner.
John Wiggins, Gail and Kevin Elwood, Preserve Clearview and the municipalities, including Clearview, Collingwood and the County of Simcoe appealed the approval of the wind turbines based on the grounds that the project would cause serious harm to human health because of the proximity to the aerodromes and serious and irreversible harm to plant life, animal life and the natural environment, specifically bats, triggering the tribunal.
The tribunal found that appellants and their expert witnesses were able to show that based on flight patterns for take-offs and landings, the wind turbines pose a threat to the safety of aircraft operators.
In January, the tribunal ruled that wpd be allowed to make submissions on appropriate remedies to address the serious and irreversible harm to animal life, plant life or the natural environment but none of the parties requested an opportunity to produce evidence or make submissions on the tribunal’s finding of serious harm to human health.
Appellants opposed the remedy hearing, saying allowing remedial proposals on one test and not the other is a waste of time and money.
However, the tribunal ruled, “it is not a foregone conclusion that a finding of serious harm under the health test or serious and irreversible harm under the environment test will always result in the revocation of an approval, even if no additional evidence or submissions are made in a remedy hearing.”
The two-week remedy hearing took place in Collingwood in March and in August the ruling stated “…the approval holder has proposed an amendment to the Renewable Energy Approval to include additional curtailment measures designed to reduce little brown myotis (bat) mortalities. The tribunal finds that these additional measures, provided they are amended to require that they be implemented from sunset to sunrise, is likely to significantly reduce little brown myotis mortality over the life of the project. However, as neither the approval holder nor the director has proposed effective means to mitigate the serious harm to human health… the tribunal concludes that the decision of the director should be revoked.”
In September, legal notice was received that the board of directors for WPD Canada had decided against appealing the decision of the Environmental Review Tribunal to revoke the Renewable Energy Approval for the Fairview Wind Project located in Clearview Township.
Opponents to the wind turbines celebrated their victory in October with a party at Collingwood Regional Airport.
