Despite hundreds of protesters surrounding him with tough questions, wpd Canada president Ian MacRae said on Oct. 27 the public meeting the night before was a good opportunity to meet people.
His company is hoping to erect four wind turbines that will each produce 2.05 megawatts of power.
The turbines are scheduled to be located entirely within Wellington County. The area is in old West Garafraxa and generally bounded by Sideroad 20 to the northwest; County Road 16 to the northeast; 2nd Line to the southwest; and Sideroad 15 to the southeast.
The proposed connection point for the transmission line is located along County Road 29, most likely at the Fergus transformer station. He said the transmission line would be about 6 to 7km long.
MacRae said of the protesters that he encountered, “They’re a dedicated, organized opposition.”
But, he added, despite a large number of questions and members of that group obtaining a microphone and asking him to address the audience (that did not happen and the microphone was eventually shut down), MacRae said he was pleased with the reaction of many people viewing the project at that meeting.
“Most attendees were interested and respectful,” he said. He added his company had 17 staff on hand to talk to people, and they discussed the events of the meeting afterward, and learned, “Some people gave quiet worlds of encouragement.”
But, he conceded, the opposition “took up about 90% of the air” in the community Sportsplex.
Unlike the Invenergy proposal located near Belwood, wpd Canada has “a [Feed in Tariff] contract to build four” wind turbines, MacRae said. He said the idea now is to identify the capacity of the local grid and, “My sense is we’ve got an excellent opportunity.”
While some people complained during the open house that four turbines are the tip of the iceberg for the project, MacRae said he doubts the company will seek more than four in the area.
He explained the property where his company has contracts to build has its limitations.
“We met the setbacks – and that’s about it,” he said, adding with two other proposals in the area, there is unlikely to be another from wpd Canada. He said his company has a number of other projects in Ontario, but none of them are in Wellington County.
The next step for the company is to complete its renewable energy document and send it to Centre Wellington council for its comments.
That might leave council confused. Perth Wellington MPP and Minister of Environment John Wilkinson had told Mapleton council that if council does not approve a project, it will not go forward.
But Wellington Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott noted that recently Wilkinson appears to be backing off that statement, leaving councils, citizens and companies wondering what the rules really are.
Arnott noted that as he rose to ask questions about that statement (reported in the Wellington Advertiser and Community News) Wilkinson was walking out of the legislature.
Arnott attended the latter part of the wpd Canada meeting and said, “People I talked to were very upset the approval process was stripped away by the Green Energy Act.”
In the beginning, Wellington County had been asked by the province to come up with rules for wind turbines, and it did so. Six months later, though, the province changed the rules and took away the right of the municipalities to approve wind turbine projects.
MacRae said he understands why people are protesting against the wind turbines.
“It’s new technology in Ontario,” he said.
Further, he admits, the wind turbines “are going to have a visual impact. There is a concern,” and people do not like change.
He said it will be up to his company to overcome those objections.
“We need to show the other side. We like the opportunity to talk with the public. We think we made some headway. We gained some friends.”
