February 24, 2012
Nova Scotia

Minister: Pugwash wind farm assessment OK

By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau, thechronicleherald.ca 24 February 2012

Despite calls to do so, the province’s environment minister says he won’t reject an environmental assessment for a wind farm planned for the Pugwash area.

“That’s not going to happen,” Sterling Belliveau said Wednesday while in his constituency.

“There is a process in place and we see that unfolding as (with) any other project that’s similar.”

Earlier this month, members of the Gulf Shore Preservation Association urged Belliveau to reject an environmental assessment prepared for Pugwash Wind Farm Inc. because they claimed the company was using data collected for public consultations five years ago. The group says that data is now inaccurate and incomplete.

In a news release issued earlier this week, the association said the community opposes the project, which would see 11 to 12 turbines, generating up to 33 megawatts of electricity, built on a site about two kilometres east of Pugwash.

International singing star Anne Murray, who has a summer home in the area, has also called on the province to stop the proposed wind farm.

Belliveau said the time is now for people to have their say on the project.

“There is a window of opportunity for the public to submit their presentations,” Belliveau said. “We’re going through that now, that 30-day window.

“We think the process is right and it’s there for all . . . Nova Scotians to have input. We have great confidence in that particular process.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/02/24/minister-pugwash-wind-farm-assessment-ok/