County gets primer on wind farms; Public meeting held in Picton
A crowd of more than 200 people filled the Prince Edward Community Centre Wednesday evening to hear first hand about a large wind farm on Wolfe Island scheduled to start any day.
Frontenac Islands (which includes Wolfe Island) Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek was on hand to talk about the process his municipality went through to see construction about to begin.
Monday, council cleared the path for commencement of the project that will see 86 2.5-megawatt turbines erected, by approving a site plan agreement.
Vanden Hoek was joined at the information session — hosted by the Prince Edward Environmental Advisory Committee — by representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Natural Resources.
“Wolfe Island is a very small municipality with only 1,100 full-time residents and about 3,000 in the summer,” Vanden Hoek told the audience. “We’ve seen significant changes over the years and now have very little employment on the island. We have become a community of commuters but we are still in denial. I think it’s safe to say we are yearning for the good old days with economic opportunities for our youth.”
Vanden Hoek said he supported the project fully and said it will mean eight new full-time jobs and another 250 construction jobs during the course of the project.
He said the municipality is pleased with an amenities deal signed with the contractor worth $40 million over the 40-year term. He said the economic spin off should be closer to $100 million over the next 40 years.
The project is valued at $450 million and will produce enough electricity to power 75,000 homes in the Greater Kingston region.
At its last meeting in July, Prince Edward County council vetoed a motion which could have put a freeze on wind turbine developments in the municipality for up to two years. The move clears the path for at least six companies to proceed with projects proposed mostly for the southern reaches of Prince Edward.
Gary Wilson, a South Bay resident, said he wants to make sure wind turbines are not erected in Prince Edward in random fashion.
“I want to make sure that if they go up, they are put up in a responsible manner,” he said. “We have built a $100 million tourism industry and that will plummet if they are put up just anywhere. I have a lot of friends who visit from places like Toronto and Montreal and I can tell you — they don’t want to come here to look at wind turbines”
Vanden Hoek said many lessons were learned during the process which began in 2000.
“I can tell you this, if you go ahead with projects here, you will be changing council during the course of them,” he said. “It’s a really difficult process and I wish we had spent more time training our council and staff about the different aspects.
“We also learned that you have to be very sensitive and flexible throughout the process to address the concerns of your community.”
By Bruce Bell
21 August 2008
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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