LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Simcoe-Grey MPP puts forward one last bill before legislature dissolves 

Credit:  By Ian Adams | Wasaga Sun | www.simcoe.com ~~

Simcoe-Grey’s provincial representative will try one more time to get Liberal government to give municipalities more planning power when it comes to dealing with green energy projects.

However, with days to go before the lieutenant-governor dissolves the legislature ahead of the June 7 provincial election, Jim Wilson said introducing a bill now is about making a point on principle.

On April 26, he reintroduced his Private Member’s Bill, the Restoring Planning Powers to Municipalities Act, which would return authority to municipalities to decide what renewable energy projects are built in their community.

Wilson has put forward his bill three times previously, in 2013, 2014, and 2016. Each time, the bill has failed to make it past first reading.

The bill aims to amend the Planning Act, reversing previous amendments made by the Green Energy Act in 2009 that exempt renewable energy undertakings from the municipal planning process. If the bill is enacted, it would restore municipal planning authority and allow local leaders to make decisions that were taken away from them by the Green Energy Act.

That would have affected municipalities such as Clearview Township, which declared itself an unwilling host to wind turbine projects – and then had to challenge a renewable energy approval for the Fairview Wind project at the Environmental Review Tribunal.

Wilson said the cost to challenge that decision was $1.6 million, for individual residents who appealed the decision, as well as Clearview, Collingwood, and the County of Simcoe. The appeal was successful.

“It was money that shouldn’t have been (spent) because the approvals should never have got past the municipal government,” he said. “The genuine sentiment across the province, in most municipalities that I’ve talked to, that they want their powers back.”

Wilson said that regardless of what happens on June 7, should he be re-elected he would reintroduce the bill when the legislature resumes.

He noted Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford’s commitment to address Ontario electricity issues should he be elected premier, “and it would be appropriate to be in a bill to clean up the hydro mess.”

Source:  By Ian Adams | Wasaga Sun | www.simcoe.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon