wpd pleased with White Pines open house
Administrator | Mar 27, 2012 | Comments 17
On Thursday, March 22nd, wpd Canada held the first of two Public Open Houses at the Prince Edward County Collegiate Institute for its White Pines wind project.
“I am pleased that 290 people were able to come to our open house and get information about our project for themselves,” said Ian MacRae, President of wpd Canada. “Our staff and consultants report that discussions with residents were respectful and engaging.”
The first Open House is part of the overall consultation process for the White Pines project. The purpose of the open house is to introduce the project to the community, to inform residents that wpd is still gathering information in order to prepare the reports required for the Renewable Energy Approval (REA) application, and invite and encourage the sharing of information and
feedback.
wpd employed 17 team members and a series of information stations throughout the venue to provide information on the project. Representatives from wpd, Stantec and Intrinsic were onhand to answer any questions from the attendees. A 25 minute presentation, including a wind turbine placement exercise, ran throughout the event.
The White Pines project consists of 29 wind turbines, feeding an estimated 169,464,000 kWh annually into the local electricity grid. This is an equivalent to the average annual power use of 9,683 homes.
“It’s important for residents and the public to know that this open house is not the only opportunity in the consultation process to interact with us,” MacRae said. “Residents and the public can communicate with us via email, Canada Post or telephone throughout this process to have their questions or concerns addressed.”
Residents and members of the public can forward their questions or concerns regarding the White Pines wind project to whitepinesproject@wpd-canada.ca; 2233 Argentia Road, Suite 102, Mississauga, ON L5N 2X7; or phone us at 1-888-712-2401. As mandated through O.Reg 359/09, wpd will be including a summary of all questions and comments received regarding the White Pines wind project as part of its REA application.
wpd will have a final open house prior to submitting its REA application to the Ministry of the Environment. wpd will give residents and the community at least 60 days notice of the date and location of the open house, and will provide the project reports for review and comment at that time.
wpd Canada is committed to, and believes in, the advancement of renewable energy. wpd Canada has developed a significant list of project opportunities. wpd Canada is a wholly-owned subsidiary of wpd Europe, a developer and financier of wind projects around the world and active in 21 countries.
-wpd Canada
Filed Under: Letters and Opinion
Some FiT facts from yesterday’s anti-FiT rally in Toronto.
(Warning: this first video clip contains a disturbing image of an eagle being struck by a turbine blade in California):
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/wind-power-blows/1545786453001
Parker Gallant from Energy Probe discusses the “economics”
of McGuinty’s “Green” Energy Plan.
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/blowing-around-the-facts/1545772146001
Jack, once the landowner has signed an option to lease, he/she has no choice to go along with the decisions of the developer for up to 5 years. No chance to back out.
We suspect that many landowners didn’t have complete information on the implications of their decision.
I read an article about how turbines affect the radar on the boats on the shipping lanes, like lake Ontario..I wrote to canada steamship line and asked them whether turbines on the south shore would affect the radar on their boats–probably will not hear from them but it was worth a try
A hard fox to hunt. It is all about green. Green as in $$$$$. $$$ for the subsisdized wind developer, $$$ for the landowner and huge $$$ in increased energy costs for everyone else not to mention the lost $$$ in devalued land
values. Perhaps MPAC should reassess the property values of those living near turbines to compensate the extreme losses. And health and environmental issues mean nothing when the opportunity to grab taxpayer $$$ is in the wind. Perhaps worse is pitting neighbours against each other all for the almighty dollar disguised as, Im doing it for my grandchildren. “Don’t eat that Harold”.
Are we chasing the wrong fox? All the turbines are on private land,perhaps the 30 odd landowners could be persuaded leasing to these company’s is not such a good idea. No land to put them on . No turbines. Persuasion could take many forms. Legal action , informative action. Group contact, What gives them the right to impact on so many wth health , environmental and financial issues. I think a judge would side on the rights of the majority. Municipality’s maybe be able to act on these issues but individuals could . Green energy act or not.
Chris because thy have an office there–hope the county charges them rent
curiously, local address associated with “wpd canada” on google maps is milford town hall.
why?
Once, you must have lived in a large city, Beth. County folks are a peaceful lot, by and large, and never have been known to riot at public meetings. I think it was offensive to have uniformed security guards patrolling the meeting in such a high profile way. Somehow, the concept of democracy in action is tarnished a little when guards patrol what is supposed to be an information session.
Not fear mongering, just stating an opinion and an observation. Problem is, my opinion, it does not agree with others. My guess is I am not the only one who feels this way.
You are now fear mongering Beth. You sound like a politician in question period spinning the facts. Do you really believe what you just stated or is it just another well defined ploy by the windys to skew the real issues?
Hey, from what I’ve seen on this site, and read in the printed papers, I am not surprised at all that the security was very clearly labelled. There appears just from the County Live site to be a great deal of open hostility. If I was a member of the company I would want to have a clear security presence in a mandated open house.
How sad that Pamela can’t tell a news story from a letter, which this from wpd Canada is listed under letters. You should be thanking countylive for giving us more information than anybody else and mostly for letting people (from both sides) have their say in the comments.
How sad that County Live didn’t ask attendees for the other side for the story on the White Pines meeting. I attended the meeting and heard a lot of angry people who weren’t getting real answers, I saw unneccessary security goons and OPP officers, and what I heard made me furious — a company president (Ian McCrae) who had never heard of Wolfe Island and another wpd representative who told me, when I asked why turbines were proposed for an important bird area, said, “We’ll put wind turbines up wherever people will lease us the land.” So much for the “integrity” promised on the company’s website.
I also talked to someone from Stantec who told me even if the proposed industrial wind turbines appear to be disastrous for birds, Stantec can’t recommend that the turbines not be built, they can only suggestsmall changes to the position of the turbines, or, as she put it, “micro-siting recommendations rather than macro-siting”.
In other words, the environmental assessment is not a true environmental assessment at all — it’s a sham.
I should try emailing them again, to see if they’ve started replying to questions yet. All I’ve got from them is three “Your correspondence has been received” auto-responses.
Those SECURITY guys were from the STratford area and they told me they always work for white pines
At least Gilead had security people who were personable
There was nothing special about that meeting WPD
google maps > “wpd canada” = local address and telephone number
google > that local telephone number = festival players of prince edward county (appropriate)
telephone > same telephone number = Ian Macrae bids you leave a message.
@ Ian MacRae
You state that you were “pleased” with your WPD open house. You shouldn’t have been… from a public relations perspective your presentation and the conditions that were employed around it were quite seriously flawed. Let me offer some advice you might employ for your next required and final “open house” presentation before you present your application to the EBR. At a time in my career I was the Editor and General Manager of PRStrategies Magazine in both Canada and the U.S.. Prior to that I had worked as a speech writer and presentation planner for PR firms. As well, I was employed by the Management Board of Cabinet to create and conduct the research for Lobbyist Legislation of PR/Government Relations Firms in Canada and taught Public Relations at the College level. Hope this is sufficient credential for you.
First, I would suggest that you limit security to perhaps a half dozen unimposing individuals who are not wearing clothing with SECURITY embossed in big bold letters… and keep them from hovering around in the main presentation area. This is indicative of an anticipation of hostility, of fear and insecurity. Casually dressed individuals with buttons would have been sufficient. Secondly, make sure that the consulting representatives are actually qualified to provide relevant information ie; I understand your “Doctor” was not a medical doctor, although he offered “prescriptions” on medical implications in this respect. I would avoid inviting/encouraging the local pro wind astroturf County Sustainability Group members. Their sophomoric actions, pro wind buttons and photo ops only serve to further inflame resentment. Be clear on the requirements of your open house. For example, you cannot answer to questions beyond your capability to provide answers. This limits the expectations of the public and provides clarity regarding your role in Industrial Wind Turbine development. Thus, when the public realizes that they cannot get “blood from a stone” they will direct their protest to the Government that requires and endorses these presentations. Lastly, I would suggest that you and your team get more PR coaching in this respect… “be prepared” should be your motto.