Effective public consultation is key to wind industry

The message was clear to delegates at the Canadian Wind Energy Association’s (CanWEA) annual conference: consultation is critically important to the development of Canada’s wind industry, and those who do it incorrectly are bound to have considerable problems.

Indeed, a panel on “Building Community Support” featured a municipal councillor from rural Ontario who began her presentation by saying “It’s nothing personal, but I don’t like your industry.”

Councillor Monica Alyea of Prince Edward County went on to criticize the wind industry for what she believed was a series of serious faults. These included taking rural communities for granted and creating unwelcome tension between neighbours over siting turbines.

Councillor Alyea – who made a point of saying she is not running in the next municipal election – was particularly critical of how proponents often bring a series of dated, hard-copy, template brochures to town halls instead of taking the time to use technology to actually show what wind farms look and sound like. “Show us a YouTube video or two of an actual turbine turning in an actual field,” she said, “and not a bunch of glossy brochures. It would be worth your while.”

The counterpoint to Councillor Alyea came from a counterpart, Mayor Lynn Acre of Bayham, Ontario. Speaking to a full plenary session, Mayor Acre spoke of the valuable roles the wind industry plays in her region – including giving local tourism a boost – and how wind proponents have gone out of their way to involve community members in a series of public consultations.

Other conference speakers discussed the challenges of good consultation and how all parties have to commit themselves to be involved and transparent. The overall consensus was a take-off on the old political adage on voting. That is, consult early and often.

The next CanWEA conference will be held in Montreal from October 31 to November 3, 2010.