‘I feel like we’ve been dismissed’: Codroy Valley group formed over concerns about proposed wind farm in area 

Residents of the Codroy Valley gathered in Doyles on Jan. 6, 2024, to express their opposition to World Energy GH2s proposed wind farm development in the area. The rally was organized by Codroy Valley United. – Contributed

Claudelle Devoe hopes something good comes out of the efforts of Codroy Valley United to find and share information about World Energy GH2’s proposed wind energy project in the area.

World Energy GH2 is proposing to build a 164-wind turbine wind farm on Crown land in the Anguille Mountains of the Codroy Valley as part of its Project Nujio’qonik.

Devoe said there are many people in the valley who are concerned about the project and that’s why Codroy Valley United was formed last September.

“There are a lot of different things at play here, but I think the biggest thing is we haven’t got any information,” Devoe, a representative of the group, told SaltWire on Wednesday, Jan. 10.

“We feel that there’s a lot of impacts that it could potentially have in many ways. … It has a lot of environmental impacts and we’re very concerned about what this could mean for the future.”

The group has concerns about where the wind farm will be located and the affect it could have on the water, how it will affect area outfitters and local people who use the land and the affect it could have on migratory birds in the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Grand Codroy Estuary.

Devoe lives in Great Codroy on the estuary and that’s part of the reason she got involved with the group, she said.

“This is a special area for birds and the estuary is very important to migrating birds.”

She also operates a tourism business and sees the benefits it brings to the region and wonders what will happen to tourism when the wind farm is built.

Devoe said that prior to the action group forming, people weren’t aware of the project, where it’s going and what’s happening with it.

She blames that on a lack of consultation that has occurred with both the company and government.

Public sessions, she said, have not provided answers, and apps provided by World Energy GH2 at a June 2023 session didn’t show how close the proposed wind farm will be to communities.

“The questions started rolling from there and we still didn’t have any information,” she said.

On some issues, Devoe said, they were told the information would be in the environmental impact statement the company was working on.

That 4,000-page document was released in August 2023, but doesn’t provide enough information, Devoe said.

“They didn’t include a thorough representation of the Codroy Valley in their assessment.”

She said it lacks a complete picture of the area’s population, trails, beaches and businesses that operate there.

“They list everything in Port au Port. It kind of made us look like we’re a ghost town here. I feel like we’ve been dismissed as far as being included as a community in the environmental impact statement.”

Devoe and several members of the group went through the statement and looked at the potential affects the project could have on the area in order to prepare a response for the call for public comments.

The group’s submission included a petition and more than 355 letters.

On Oct. 31, 2023, Environment and Climate Change Minister Bernard Davis determined the statement required additional work, a decision was made public on Nov. 1, 2023.

That process has not yet been completed.

As it waits to see what will happen next, Devoe said Codroy Valley United will continue its efforts to find and share information. On Jan. 6 the group held a public rally in Doyles that was attended by about 120 people.