With only 10 days left, the city has submitted its comments on the proposed Big Thunder Wind Park.
The proposed Horizon Wind Inc. wind farm on top of the Nor’Western mountainside is going through its Renewable Energy Approval. The public is allowed to comment on the project from April 23 to June 22.
The City of Thunder Bay announced that it had submitted its comments to the Ministry of the Environment on Wednesday.
The comments are based on the report done by Dillon Consulting Ltd. The company was hired by the city to carry out a review of the final REA submission on the project.
City manager Tim Commisso said the comments are a revised version of the 16 comments the city submitted on the project back in 2010.The comments addressed a broad range of concerns the city had including safety issues such as flickering and the potential ice throwing.
Commisso said the new comments are far more specific.
“We’ve taken the view that Horizon has addressed our comments,” he said. “They have responded to them specifically. We’re submitting back to the province to say ‘here’s Dillon’s report with all of our information’.
“It falls on the province and Horizon to deal with the specifics for not only our comments but everyone’s comments.”
Commisso said when the final REA came out they would look at their comments to see if they were addressed.
With the city tied into a contract with Horizon, Commisso added they have to move forward with the project.
“We’re like any other party we’ve submitted our comments,” he said.
“We understand that it is about six months that the province normally takes before they have a decision. We wanted to make sure we fulfilled at least a verbal commitment that we would look at how these comments have been addressed and that’s what we have done.”
