The Blue Mountains, Grey Highlands and Grey County have teamed up to ask for changes in the proposed Green Energy Act.
Officials from the Blue Mountains, Grey Highlands and Grey County appeared before last week’s hearing in Toronto on Ontario’s Green Energy Act.
The Act contains provisions that would exempt renewable energy projects from local planning and zoning by-laws as well as the province’s own Environmental Assessment Act and the Clean Water Act.
Politicians in Blue Mountains and Grey Highlands are concerned about those provisions.
Blue Mountains CAO Paul Graham says they are worried their residents will have little say about the size and location of renewable energy projects.
The Blue Mountains and Grey Highlands dealt with a controversial wind energy project, the Blue Highlands Wind Farm, just a few years ago.
That project would have seen up to 134 windmills built atop the Blue Mountains in what many consider a valuable and environmentally-sensitive section of the Niagara Escarpment.
The project was later downsized and, eventually, withdrawn — but it was the centre of controversy between those who saw it as a chance to generate green energy and those who saw it as a threat to the escarpment environment.
Both Grey Highlands and The Blue Mountains have adopted amendments to their Official Plans and Zoning By-laws to deal with future renewable energy projects.
But those will be made obsolete if the Green Energy Act goes ahead as currently proposed.
Graham says they support renewable energy, but they also want to ensure the concerns of local ratepayers are not ignored.
The town’s staff report also calls on the province to undertake scientific research on the long-term health impacts of renewable energy projects, especially wind turbines.