TES Canada’s project to build 130 wind turbines to power its green hydrogen plant is causing a stir in a dozen municipalities in Mauricie. So much so that elected officials have decided to ban any questions about wind turbines at their last council meeting. Mayors refuse to take a position for or against the project. Two visions of local democracy are clashing.
“Don’t say that word.” During the question period of the Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan municipal council on September 3, Mayor Christian Gendron reprimanded a citizen who had dared to use the word “wind turbines.” He allowed the citizen to ask his question anyway, but he sent this warning: “I don’t tolerate any others.”
In interview with The DutyMr. Gendron explained why the council made this decision. “It’s going around in circles. We’ve heard all the concerns for several months,” he said, calling the TES Canada project a “hot issue.” The council has not yet decided whether to maintain its ban at the next meeting.
René Beaudoin, a resident of Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan, acknowledges that, since the project was announced last January, discussions on the subject could stretch out for more than an hour at council. However, he says that citizens have “made it a point of never asking the same question twice.” And he still has fears and questions.
“The little knowledge we have about the impacts of noise concerns small wind turbines, while TES wants to make wind turbines twice as powerful. Shouldn’t we apply a precautionary principle?” asks the man who lives on wooded land. Between 14 and 18 wind turbines are planned by TES Canada on the territory of his municipality. According to the preliminary maps of building zones published by the company, Mr. Beaudoin could have some behind his house.
He has still not been able to obtain any reports of the discussions between municipal officials and wind turbine experts. He also questions the appropriate distances that should separate wind turbines from houses and wind turbines from each other. He fears losing certain rights on his land, including the right to build buildings on certain sites, if a neighbor accepts a wind turbine adjacent to his property.
Since the announcement of the project, the council chambers of the municipalities of the two MRCs concerned have been filled with dozens and sometimes hundreds of concerned citizens. Petitions against the installation of TES Canada wind turbines have collected, according to opponents, more than 4,100 signatures in total in eight small municipalities. In Saint-Prosper-de-Champlain, the municipal administration itself conducted a survey to take the pulse of the population. With a participation rate of 42% of residents, 84% of respondents, or 267 people, said no to the installation of wind turbines in the municipality. Several specified that they did not want them “on agricultural land.”
TES Canada CEO Eric Gauthier believes that social acceptability is better than what is being portrayed in the media. He pointed out that many property owners have signed the agreement to host a wind turbine on their land. According to him, the core of opponents is not huge compared to the size of the population and would essentially be made up of people living far from the wind turbines.
Mayors without an opinion
The mayors, for their part, have adopted a position of neutrality. During a meeting of the council of mayors of the MRC of Mékinac on August 21, the prefect explained her vision of things. “Democracy is about listening to you and understanding both sides,” said Caroline Clément. “There are those who are for it, there are those who are against it. We are here to listen to both sides and put forward both sides.”
Eric Blouin, mayor of Sainte-Thècle, believes that he has “no opinion” at the moment. According to him, opponents are making a lot of noise, while many citizens in favor of the project are silent. “The project has good and bad sides, so we are far from the moment when we will take a position,” he said by telephone, mentioning the fact that the possible consultations of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) will be enlightening.
He points out that the annual royalties for 10 wind turbines would represent $270,000 for the municipality. “We are not blinded by money, but we cannot ignore it. We are at a stage where climate change has a big impact on our budgets,” Mr. Blouin said. He is referring in particular to the accumulations of water that caused roads to subside in Sainte-Thècle this summer.
However, the mayor of Sainte-Thècle believes that the developer still has to prove that his project is good for the energy transition. For now, he says he has sent the petition he received and a list of citizens’ concerns to the Ministry of the Environment for environmental assessments.
Anti-democratic?
Isabelle Clément, municipal councillor in Hérouxville, believes that this neutrality is an affront to democracy. “It’s a position that means we can’t have a debate,” she says. She reports that her stance against the TES Canada project was poorly received by a large portion of the elected officials in her MRC: “I was told to keep quiet.”
The elected official deplores that this project “opens a breach towards the private production and distribution of electricity in Quebec.” She is also skeptical about its usefulness for the decarbonization of our economy. A case study by two experts in the energy sector, published this spring, also calls into question the energy efficiency of the project.
“The project has been announced for almost a year, we have had time to find out about it,” says M.me Clément. She demands that municipalities measure the population’s support with a survey or a referendum. According to her, the neutrality of mayors suits the wind developer, since they do not put a spoke in its wheels.
MRCs and municipalities cannot prohibit the installation of wind turbines, but they can regulate it. Mme Clément believes that the interim control by-law (RCI) of the MRC of Mékinac, filed this summer, which establishes separation distances and excludes the establishment in certain zones, is not restrictive enough. She intends, with her colleagues from Hérouxville, to adopt a stricter municipal by-law to this effect.
Moreover, the RCI in question was rejected last week by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which deemed it non-compliant with government guidelines on land use planning.
TES Canada Executive Director Eric Gauthier laments that mayors are being “left to their own devices” in this matter, in which they are not experts. “In November, when the project was announced, all the ministers came to shake hands and smile. Afterwards, they disappeared,” he said.
Poorly equipped
Laurence Bherer, a full professor in the Department of Political Science at the Université de Montréal, believes that both of these visions of the role of local elected officials are valid. However, she emphasizes that they “have an important role of animation and mobilization,” that is, of encouraging discussion on issues that affect citizens.
“Municipalities are often on the front lines of many things, such as development projects that fall on them, and they are not always well equipped,” notes this specialist in local democracy. This type of case highlights the need to organize a national project on public participation, she believes, given that the number of energy projects, real estate densification and the fight against climate change is set to multiply.