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Many eyes were on the R.M. of Weyburn No. 67 council on Friday as they held their regular meeting, with items on the agenda pertaining to the proposed Seven Stars wind energy project.
Proposed bylaw amendment
This included the first reading of a bylaw amendment requested by Enbridge, the company behind the project, regarding the permissible height of wind turbines.
David Coll is the Senior Communications Advisor for Enbridge. He explains the current restrictions are not up to date with modern technologies.
“The Weyburn bylaw dates back to 2013 and in the bylaws they stipulate an allowable height for a wind turbine whether it's for domestic use or for a commercial facility. The height of the turbine that is allowed under the present bylaw is 45 meters and you know there is no commercial wind farm that could build with a turbine of that height. It has to be much higher for a modern wind farm to operate.”
The council will move on to a second reading of the amendment, following a public hearing. This hearing will regard only the bylaw amendment and not the Seven Stars Energy project. Coll says representatives from Enbridge will be in attendance.
“Our understanding is that we will have an opportunity to give a presentation and no doubt that council will have some questions. We weren't asked any questions at the R.M. meeting on Friday and that's presumably because those questions will be asked at the public hearing. We're looking forward to that opportunity to address those questions.”
Public notice regarding the hearing is required to be published in a local news source at least two weeks prior to the event.
Next steps
Coll emphasizes that the bylaw amendment is one of many steps in the process of getting the project in motion.
“I think some folks sort of thought this this is the R.M. deciding yes or no on the project and that's not the case.”
He continues saying they will continue to meet and engage with the community, residents, and landowners as things unfold. The next step will be submitting an environmental impact statement. They will also need to get approval from the Enbridge board of directors.
“This would be reviewed by the Saskatchewan ministry and then that document goes through a public comment period so there's a lot more touch points with the public before we even get to the stage where the project would go to that approval stage.”
“We're not going to be in a position to say for 100 percent certain that we're going to move forward with the project, but that certainly is our intent.”
Local support
The meeting also saw around 45 letters of support presented to the council, senders include Gibson Welding, Weyburn & District Planning and Commission, Weyburn Chamber of Commerce, Dan Cugnet, and approximately 45 other Weyburn businesses.
Coll says this is just some of the support they have observed.
“At the meeting on Friday I believe there was about 30 people in the room as observers and I counted more than 20 project supporters among that group and these are all local business, people from Weyburn.” He continues” I think a lot of the business folks in Weyburn came out including the Weyburn Regional Economic Development Group to show their support for the project and for the R.M. to move forward on our bylaw amendment which would allow us to ultimately construct a commercial wind project.”
“I think that businesses and a lot of citizens realize that a project like this would create significant economic benefits.”
He provides an example of the benefits the area could see beginning with the construction of the wind farm. He explains roughly 200 workers will be employed on the site and accommodated in local hotels.
“We won't have a work camp, so they'll be staying in local hotels they'll be using local restaurants, and local businesses and things like that. We have good grassroots support from the business community and they're starting to get other businesses kind of to say ‘hey, we think this is good for Weyburn and this could be good for us so let's get out there and support this’.”
“We obviously appreciate there are there can be different viewpoints on the project and you do hear a lot about opposition but what we are seeing I think and what was clear at the RM meeting is that there's a lot more support out there than maybe has been talked about to this point.”