By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON May 2, 2012 City Council decided to cancel the construction of the planned wind turbine on the pier being built at the end of Brant street. Six years late, more than $5 million over the original cost, this is a project the city wants to get completed so they can move on and put an end to the withering and caustic public comment.
The city engineers report to a council committee that the Cumberland Street hydro station cannot take a feed of power from the turbine. The solution they put forward is to install a battery pack in the electrical utility room and store the power there and then use it later to light the pier up at night.
BurlingtonGreen wants to know where the cancelled turbine is and how does Council plan to tell the public about the decision they made to kill that part of the pier project.
That solution will cost $70,000 and the council committee takes a pass almost as fast as you can say “jack rabbit”. The committee report gets moved along to city council where most council members felt it would pass easily.
They didn’t factor in the BurlingtonGreen response. Amy Schnurr didn’t know about the committee decision (not reading Our Burlington regularly Amy) and wanted Council to send the report back to Committee where the decision to kill the turbine could be looked at in more detail with the benefit of BurlingtonGreen input.
City Council didn’t buy that argument and voted to not install the turbine on the pier. Done Council thought.
Not quite. BurlingtonGreen writes Mayor Goldring and releases the letter to the media. They said: (We have added some comment in bold type)
Dear Mayor Goldring,
As you would expect, BurlingtonGreen is very disappointed with the unanimous decision of Council to cancel the pier wind turbine. It would have served as an important symbol of Burlington’s commitment to innovation and economic growth as well as providing environmental benefits. We believe the decision to cancel it will send a strong signal counter to our collective goals.
This Council can live with whatever signal gets sent – what it can’t live with is the painful public response had they spent an additional $70,000
Of additional concern is Council’s unwillingness to explore creative (i.e. privately funded) solutions to support the added costs for the project and unwillingness to defer the item to allow for public awareness and an invitation for meaningful engagement. This appears to be very much at odds with this Council’s expressed commitment to do a better job at this.
Council wants anything that even hints at a problem with the pier to just go away.
Moving forward, without the benefit of a staff report our team has some questions I am hoping you can answer or direct to the appropriate staff member.
1: What are the next steps with the wind turbine unit? Who owns it? Is it available for use elsewhere in the City? Will there be any costs as a result of cancelling the turbine order and if so, what is the amount?
No one really knows quite where the turbine is these days. It is part of the law suit with the original contractor and designer. The steel beams that were stripped from the Pier just before Christmas are in storage and will stay there until the law suit is settle. If there is a turbine, and no one knows if there actually is one, the people on the other side of the law suit aren’t talking to us.
2. There were Council comments about a preference to redirect the 100k from Hydro (earmarked for the turbine) to support another, more effective renewable energy project in the City. We would like to learn more about this opportunity and what the process will include as far as specific project opportunities, the 100K funding redirection and the projected timing of this.
Interesting question. While the city wasn’t sure Burlington Hydro was going to let their $100,000 contribution stay on the table now that it is still in the hands of the city – perhaps something could be done. But is BurlingtonGreen looking to Burlington Hydro for an innovative idea? Good luck on that one.
3. We would like to know how and when the cancellation of the wind turbine will be communicated to the citizens of Burlington.
The city probably wasn’t going to say a thing – hoping it would just go away – but now that you’ve asked, the people in public affairs can get creative on the press release. Good luck on that one as well.
Thank you in advance for your attention to these inquiries and we look forward to a response.
Amy Schnurr, Executive Director, BurlingtonGreen Environmental Association
This is what happens when you have an committed, engaged community that cares about what happens to their city. They want to participate.
