Licence to kill

Wind developer seeks permission to “kill, harm and harass” endangered species in the County

What is the point of identifying an endangered species if the province is willing to grant an industrial wind developer permission to “kill, harm or harass” a species at risk?

That is the question many folks were asking on Sunday at a gathering in Picton. It was standing room only as folks tried to understand the meaning of a notice posted last week on the Ministry of Natural Resources Environmental Registry.

On May 10 Gilead Power Corporation filed a notice seeking permission to destroy habitat and kill the whippoorwill and Blanding’s turtle—both identified as species at risk.This is necessary to enable Gilead Power to erect nine 40-storey wind turbines on Crown land at Ostrander Point perhaps as soon as this summer. To do this, it must create massive (23 metre diameter by three metre depth ) concreate foundations and a network of access roads through the nature preserve. It will be difficult for these animals to avoid the heavy equipment that may soon be burrowing into their nesting grounds.

To earn the provincial government’s ‘licence to kill’, the company promises to implement measures to reduce harm to the specific animals it affects and provide benefit to the species overall. Other species presumably are on their own.

Members of the public have until June 9 to submit written comments citing their objections to the permit to “kill, harm and harass” species at risk.

Many believe this latest hurdle to be little more than a check-box the developer must fill in on its way to construction this summer. Having witnessed the McGuinty government lower and eliminate environmental and regulatory barriers and remove local government authority over the development of industrial wind turbine factories in their community, few expect the province to grow an environmental spine now and stop the developer at this late stage—not for a turtle and whippoorwill. Many in the room on Sunday, and elsewhere, were astonished to learn that the province could pervert its own natural resource protections to accommodate an industrial wind developer in this way.

“This is exactly how these species became endangered,” said Myrna Wood, of the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists, to the gathering on Sunday.

The site upon which Gilead seeks to build its industrial wind factory has been identified by the developer’s own studies as a wintering habitat for the Blanding’s turtle.

“The entire site is used as a hibernation and and breeding site,” said Wood. “This alvar [the biological environment] is one of four or five in the world. It is globally important.”

The Blanding’s turtle typically takes 25 years to mature—two and half decades to reproduce. Thus the decimation of its hibernation site represents a serious threat to the local population. Gilead proposes as part of its permit application that it will seek to mitigate damage by creating a nesting habitat for the turtle on the east side of the site, will educate workers, set speed limits, erect signage and avoid chemical spraying to reduce damage to the resident species.

For those worried about the fate of these animals, none of these measures comes close to being sufficient.

Ontario Nature and Nature Canada have joined local conservancy groups in deploring the provincial government’s removal of critical safeguards for this and other wind developer.

“What can we do?” asked several of those present on Sunday.

The answer for some will be to join a demonstration march on Friday in Picton.

The 550-metre march (the Green Energy Act’s prescribed setback between industrial wind turbines and residences) is set to gather at the Metro grocery store parking lot at 10 a.m. and proceed to MPP Leona Dombrowsky’s Picton constituency office at the Armoury Mall by 10:30 a.m.