County of St. Paul defeats proposed wind energy bylaw changes

Mark Mallett with Wind Concerns says the group is disappointed by council’s decision.

ST. PAUL – After months of review, a proposal to increase restrictions around wind energy development in the County of St. Paul has been defeated.

Wind Concerns, a group representing over 50 families in the Northern Valley area, located south of Elk Point, proposed to amend parts of the County’s Land Use Bylaw that involves strengthening restrictions on commercial alternate energy developments and Wind Energy Conversion Systems, or WECS.

The group hopes stronger restrictions will help ensure public health, agricultural viability, environmental protection, aviation safety, and rural livability when large-scale wind energy projects are proposed in the county.

Some key proposed amendments include discouraging wind energy development on high-quality agricultural soils, including Class 1, 2, and 3 soils; as well as requiring 10-kilometre setback between wind turbines and homes.

Council gave first reading to the proposed bylaw during the Jan. 27 council meeting.

Deferred

During a public hearing held on Feb. 24, where council deferred providing the second and third readings to give councillors more time to review the proposed amendments, administration raised several concerns about how the amendments go beyond what provincial regulation currently requires or recognizes.

County of St. Paul Director of Planning and Development Gary Buchanan said parts of Wind Concerns’ proposals could exceed, or be overridden by provincial or federal regulatory authority, especially because commercial wind projects are ultimately approved through provincial processes, and not a municipal LUB.

Ultimately, the issue, according to Buchanan, is simply not just whether council agrees with the intent of the proposed bylaw, but whether the County could enforce some of the proposed rules including the proposed setbacks, added restrictions on Class 3 agricultural soils, aviation-related restrictions, and environmental buffers around water bodies, without being overridden by provincial or federal regulators.

Buchanan said the purpose of having requirements in the County’s LUB is to establish local standards within the County’s authority, which makes the proposed changes difficult to defend, as they risk encroaching on provincial authority.

Buchanan said it is still up to council to decide whether they want to adopt all, some, or none of the proposed changes.

April 28 meeting

During the April 28 meeting, discussions included council looking at whether the proposed environment restrictions were clear enough to add to the LUB.

One of the issues council discussed was whether the County should include Class 3 soils in the proposed restrictions on wind energy development, with Coun. Maxine Fodness asking Buchanan to clarify whether limiting that amendment would better align the County with the province.

“By adding Class 3, you then step in beyond . . . the limitations outlined by the province,” because the province only restricts renewable energy development on Class 1 and 2 soils, explained Buchanan.

Council also briefly discussed whether Wind Concerns’ proposed five-kilometre buffer around several lakes, rivers and environmentally sensitive areas is viable, including the North Saskatchewan River, the Whitney Provincial Park Lake System, Kehewin Lake, and Lac Bellevue.

Buchanan said the proposal is too broad because it lists water bodies without identifying the specific environmental features being protected, such as nesting areas, migration routes, species-at-risk habitat or native grasslands.

Reeve Glen Ockerman asked whether the County’s existing bylaw already deals with those concerns through environmental impact assessments.

Buchanan said it does, explaining the County requires an environmental impact assessment for wind energy projects, as does the province, and if the assessment has already been completed for the province, the County does not require the developer to do the same work again.

“What we provided for under our bylaw is if one is done by the province . . . we won’t make you do it a second time,” Buchanan said.

Following more discussions, Coun. Louis Dechaine, Coun. Dale Hedrick, and Coun. Gerald Michaud voted to approve the proposed amendments, while Ockerman, Fodness, Coun. Darrell Younghans and Coun. Shane Smith voted against the proposal.

Disappointing decision, says Wind Concerns

After the April 28 meeting, Mark Mallett with Wind Concerns told Lakeland This Week that the group is disappointed by council’s decision.

“We’ve been battling for two years to get our local council to amend their land use bylaws to implement a safe setback of wind turbines from human dwellings,” Mallett said.

Wind Concerns believes existing provincial rules do not go far enough to protect residents from health impacts connected to wind turbines.

“The scientific evidence of the harms to humans, with new peer-reviewed research, continues to mount. It’s imperative that municipalities protect their citizens, and the AUC has even signaled that they are considering municipality bylaws,” said Mallett.

“But at today’s council meeting in St. Paul, they dropped the ball and chose not to pursue a decision. The community over here is stunned, upset, [and] feeling betrayed by those we elected,” Mallett said. “There is a massive consensus that no one wants these turbines, so this decision will not go down well.”