Could Minto be a spot for a wind turbine project? That’s the question being mulled over between council, residents and ProWind.
A meeting was held on Thursday in Harriston between ProWind, a German based company and the public to hear more about the potential project and act as a chance for concerns to be heard.
ProWind has already met with council to discuss the idea however as its listed from Wind Concerns Ontario, Minto is on the list of councils who have passed resolutions being unwilling hosts for new industrial wind power sites.
Currently ProWind has no real decisions made or any discussions with landowners as they are in a long period stage where right now they are deciding if wind turbines are even feasible for the community and if the public wants them.
Residents raised concerns both in advance and during the meeting discussing long term effects for health and hearing, determining safe distance for a wind turbine, why in Minto, any issues affecting dairy production right up to a study done 15 years ago which had found Minto did not have the proper wind capacity needed to be an ideal spot for wind turbines.
Helmut Schneider, Vice-President of ProWind Canada emphasized this is still very much in early stages and it’ll be quite quiet going forward especially with a change in council coming.
“We’ll probably let the new council get their bearings and then I’d like to go in front of council in January, just to update them on what we experienced here and then we’ll have more community meetings here. There is no interest on our part to push the timing with council or the community, we are not submit a project into the March procurement because that is way too short. The community deserves a lot more time than that.” said Schneider.
ProWind intends to launch a website within the next few weeks specifically for the potential Minto project to provide as much insight as possible and take questions and concerns from the public.
ProWind also intends to hold more public meetings with a goal to ensure some are done in evenings to accommodate more to attend.
