Second front

PECFN lawyer Eric Gillespie (left) will be back before Tribunal members Heather Gibbs and Robert Wright in Demorestville on September 2 to 4. These hearings and resulting decision will likely be the last words in this two-year long legal struggle.

APPEC and County resident square off against White Pines industrial wind project

There will be an appeal of the White Pines industrial wind energy development approved last month, but the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists (PECFN) have concluded they won’t join this fight—not directly, anyway. The small group of volunteers simply can’t afford to open another front in their battle to save the birds, animals and habitat from 27 more 45-storey high wind turbines on the County’s vulnerable south shore.

PECFN made environment regulatory history in 2013, managing to overturn the approval by the Ministry of Environment of a nine-turbine wind energy project at Ostrander Point. It was the first, and remains the only time a renewable energy approval (REA) or similar permit has been revoked in Canada.

That decision was appealed by the developer, Gilead Power, and has dragged through the courts for the past two years. In early September, the Environmental Review Tribunal (Tribunal) that heard the 2013 appeal by PECFN and the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County (APPEC), will reconvene to hear whether measures proposed by the developer are sufficient to ensure the Blanding’s turtle, an endangered species, will avoid serious and irreversible harm.

PECFN must focus its attention—and meagre resources—on this fight. It will, however, share its experience and data with APPEC and resident John Hirsch, who are appealing the White Pines project to another environment review tribunal.

APPEC says it will appeal the MOE’s approval of the 27-wind-turbine development, stretching from Milford to the edge of the federal wildlife area at Long Point, based upon the threat the machines and construction pose to humans and animals. Prince Edward County’s south shore is the first bit of land that hundreds of thousands of migrating birds see after embarking northward across Lake Ontario each spring. There is also mounting epidemiological evidence of the harm the electricity-generating turbines have on some people who live nearby. “APPEC is well-prepared to launch this appeal,” wrote Gord Gibbins. “We have been actively critiquing the project since 2010 when it was issued a FIT contract. We are motivated and we are ready with a legal team and expert witnesses.”

The municipality won’t join the legal fight either. Mayor Robert Quaiff sent a toughly worded letter to Kathleen Wynne after the White Pines project was approved, demanding a meeting with the provincial premier. In strong terms Quaiff, restated concerns that the municipality has been marginalized by the Green Energy Act, rendered powerless to protect the County’s roads, habitat, economic prosperity and heritage from the impact of industrial wind development.

“Efforts to implement the Green Energy Act are becoming counter-productive through resulting negative impacts to endangered species, as well as the prosperity and well-being of rural Ontario Communities,” wrote Mayor Quaiff on July 23.

Wynne didn’t respond. Instead, Environment minister Glen Murray wrote to say neither the Premier nor he would meet with the mayor—that the proper way to appeal the decision was to the Tribunal.

Unhelpfully Murray told Quaiff that his ministry had made changes to the Green Energy Act to ensure that future large renewable energy projects like White Pines would tolerate a bit more municipal input.

Murray also wrote that approval of the White Pines project included several conditions arising from concerns raised about the project. Among these conditions, the developer is urged to employ avoidance techniques to avoid harm to Blanding’s turtles. And in the event the turbines kill more birds than anticipated in its application, the developer must notify the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Specifically to address concerns raised by County council, the province insists the developer make reasonable efforts to have ongoing discussions with the municipality.

Nevertheless, the County won’t join the appeal.

No hearing dates have yet been set for the White Pines environmental review tribunal.

The developer, however, isn’t required to wait for the tribunal’s decision, or even for the review process to begin. With its permit in hand, wpd Canada can commence construction immediately.

In Chatham last year, an industrial wind project was largely built when the Tribunal rendered its decision.