An activist group opposed to a Neebing wind farm says the city needs to block the controversial project and stop using the province as a scapegoat.
More than 200 residents packed the Vickers Height Community Centre Wednesday night for a Neebing Ward meeting that focused on the proposed Big Thunder Wind Park. The proposal would see Horizon Wind Inc. erect about 18 wind turbines along the Nor’Wester Mountain range, a plan that led to the creation of the activist group called the Nor’Wester Mountain Escarpment Protection Committee.
The city’s zoning power in this case is limited, said Mark Smith, City of Thunder Bay’s general manager for development services. The municipal zoning power for green projects is limited because of Ontario’s Green Energy Act.
Some residents and Protection Committee members attending the meeting had issue with that.
"For the city to push this on the province and blame them for the process is a complete copout," said Irene Bond, a Protection Committee member.
Bond said municipalities and citizens are upset that wind turbines are going up across the province without their say, but added that Thunder Bay is in a unique position because the proposed sites are on city-owned land.
MPP Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan), on Thursday said the province is in favour of green energy projects like this, but neither the city of Thunder Bay nor the Township of Neebing is being forced into the Nor'Wester project.
"There's nothing in any provincial legislation that compels any private landholder, in this case the City of Thunder Bay ... to accept a green energy project. Or if they choose to accept it, they obviously maintain control of their private land. So that's the message that we're giving back to people who correspond with our office," said Mauro, who was not at Wednesday night's meeting.
The Protection Committee has a long list of issues with the proposed Big Thunder project. The main concerns surround the proximity of the turbines to people, and the environmental impact the Committee says those turbines may have in the Nor’Wester area.
Nhung Nguyen, project co-ordinator with Horizon Wind Inc., told media in the fall that the Protection Committee shouldn’t be troubled by the $75-million Neebing project.
"I don’t think they should have those concerns," she said about fears of noise pollution and other issues related to proximity. "The province of Ontario has put out very strict regulations regarding the development of wind farms. We are bound by those regulations and they are consistent with regulations that were done in other jurisdictions like Denmark, Germany, the UK or the United States."
Nguyen said the strictness of Ontario’s regulations is equal to or greater than the jurisdictions she used as examples.
Neebing Ward Coun. Linda Rydholm attended Wednesday night’s ward meeting. She said the purpose of the meeting was to share information and that it seems to have been successful in doing that.
Coun. Rydholm said the ward meeting might not be the last to focus on the proposed wind farm project. An environmental assessment and possibly several deputations to council are expected in the near future and community meetings could be organized in response to those.
Following the meeting, Smith said that the city’s limited zoning power doesn’t mean citizens will be kept silent. While the process has changed following the Green Energy Act, there will still be an opportunity for residents to make their issues known.
"A different review process has been put in place and it’s a process that the province is responsible for," Smith said. "The city will put input into that (process), and the review process is still very much in place.
"It involves a lot of opportunity for consultation, a lot of opportunity for objections or appeals if people aren’t pleased with the decisions that are made. That point should be made."
