Wpd Canada’s Fairview Wind Farm application will not have the support of Clearview Township when it goes before the Ministry of Environment this fall. Whether that will have any effect on the province’s ultimate decision, however, is anyone’s guess.
Clearview Council made its defiant position on the proposed wind farm official Monday night, voting by a count of 7-2 in favour of Planning Director Michael Wynia’s staff report, which was released two weeks ago and offered a multi-pronged approach to blocking the construction of turbines in the vicinity of County Road 91 and Fairgrounds Road.
Following Wynia’s recommendations in full, Council voted Monday night to request a moratorium on all wind development until the outcome of the recently announced federal health study is known; to approve the initiation of the Clearview Heritage Landscape Conservation Project, which will seek heritage landscape designation for the viewscape that exists when looking down towards Georgian Bay from the Niagara Escarpment; to have staff draft a Nuisance Bylaw to deal with potential nuisance and annoyance impacts of turbines; to investigate amending the Township’s development charges bylaw to apply to industrial wind turbine and other green energy project construction; and to request and endorse an application by the Collingwood Regional Airport Committee for federal aerodrome zoning.
Going around the horn before the vote, several Councillors expressed their gratitude to the planning department for producing such an all-encompassing document and to members of the public – many of whom were seated in the audience – for their work in researching and educating the community about wind energy over the past several years.
“This report truly reflects the sentiment of our community,” said Councillor Brent Preston, noting that throughout his election campaign and during his last year and a half on Council, he had not met a single person in favour of industrial wind turbines. Despite once contemplating signing a wind contract on his own farm, Preston said in the years since he had come to realize that the province’s version of wind energy was not actually about green energy at all. “These turbines would contribute virtually nothing to our community, and would bring huge costs with them.”
Councillor Doug Measures said the safety of the airport was critical in his mind, while Councillor Orville Brown said he’d received over 230 emails and phone calls and none had been in favour of the proposed wind farm.
Councillor Deb Bronee said she was motivated by the Township’s desire for sustainable employment, noting that the wind farm would not create any long-term jobs. “At the same time, there are established businesses in this municipality who feel they would be affected negatively by this,” she said. “I think we have to listen to them.”
Before signalling his support, Councillor Robert Walker questioned Wynia about the scope of the heritage designation and the nuisance bylaw, and was told that both would likely attempt to block things that are “out of context to what occurs within the present landscape.” Before either instrument was adopted, Wynia said, there would be extensive public consultation and further debate at the Council table.
That was enough for Walker, but Councillor Shawn Davidson remained skeptical of the nuisance bylaw. Confirming that Wynia had not been able to find a similar existing bylaw anywhere in the province, Davidson said he had talked to elected representatives at several municipalities who had considered similar avenues, but had been told that the bylaws had not come to fruition because they were essentially unenforceable. “I’m afraid I can’t support something that, to me, seems like a huge waste of time.”
Supportive of the rest of Wynia’s recommendations, Davidson then made a motion to have the direction regarding the nuisance bylaw removed from the overall motion. Davidson’s motion was seconded by Councillor Bronee, but was defeated in a 5-4 vote (with Councillor Walker and Deputy Mayor Alicia Savage joining Davidson and Bronee on the yea side).
With the original motion intact, Councillor Thom Paterson was next to voice his support, stating that in his mind, no issue had been clearer in the community during his six years on Council. He also rejected the commonly held notion that the Green Energy Act has removed all municipal say when it comes to renewable energy projects. “That just makes me want to speak up louder,” he said. “In my opinion, this is what a Council does – it represents the people who elected it. We need to speak up, and we need to speak clearly.”
Deputy Mayor Alicia Savage was the lone member of Council who spoke in favour of the proposed wind farm, reading from prepared comments and stating that the wind issue had been the most divisive and personal subject she’d encountered on Council – one, she said, that would leave “a bitter legacy which will linger long after the Province makes its decision.”
Savage went on to say she believed there was a silent majority in the Township who supported “the values around” green energy, and that she would represent that group by voting against the Wynia report. “The bottom line for me is that there are no insurmountable arguments against green energy,” she said. “I cannot say I support it in principle and then find ways to oppose a project simply because I don’t want it here. If we truly are concerned for our environment, for air quality, for the exhaustion of natural resources, for our never-ending thirst for energy, then we have to do something, sometime, somewhere.”
Mayor Ken Ferguson, who had the final word before the vote, said there were too many unanswered questions regarding industrial wind turbines for them to win his support. “I’m all for change – I believe in it and I know it’s coming,” he said. “But is this it? I’m not convinced.”
With that, Council voted to approve Wynia’s report in full, with Savage and Davidson voting against it. The result was met with applause from the gallery.
As part of the resolution, Council also approved the 12 conditions put forward by Wynia that Clearview will request that the Province require of wpd should the MOE ignore the municipality’s objections and approve the Fairview Wind Farm. These include the following: that building permits be required for each turbine; that applicable development charges be paid to the Township; that security for the decommissioning of the turbines be provided to the Township; that necessary permits be required from the NVCA and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans; that easements be established and entrance permits be obtained from the Township; that a bird migration study be completed and that a commitment to appropriate bird or bat conservation funds/programs be established in the approvals process should any significant species succumb to the operation of the turbines; that funds be allocated to the Clearview Heritage Conservation Program; that wpd confirm with Transport Canada, NAV Canada and the Department of National Defense that there are no issues with the turbines’s proximity to public and private airstrips located in the Township; and that wpd set out a “municipal compensation package and/or local economic participation program that reflects an appropriate contribution to the local economy in light of the scale and range of impacts of the proposal beyond the limited construction and decommissioning periods of the project.”
That last point was the subject of a subsequent motion Monday night, put forward by Deputy Mayor Savage. With wpd aiming to submit its final Renewable Energy Application to the Ministry of the Environment in mid-September and a financial plan required as part of that submission, Savage argued that Mayor Ferguson should meet with the company in the next four to six weeks to ensure that some sort of municipal compensation or community investment is included in their plans.
Councillors Davidson and Paterson both expressed discomfort with the prospect of the Mayor asking wpd for money immediately after Council had gone public with its non-support of the company’s project, with Paterson in particular worried that it would look like the Township “is doing one thing in public, and another behind closed doors.”
Savage disagreed however, stating that Ferguson would just be doing Council’s due diligence, particularly since it had just voted to seek compensation from wpd should the Province ignore the Township’s objection to the project. She then asked for a recorded vote, and the motion passed, with only Councillors Davidson, Paterson and Preston voting against it.