The limits of municipal jurisdiction

Jeff Green | Aug 03, 2016

It is no secret that North Frontenac's mayor, Ron Higgins, is convinced that installing wind turbines anywhere in North Frontenac would be a bad idea.

Under his recommendation, North Frontenac Council declared itself a “unwilling host” at the first opportunity in the spring of 2015, before even hearing from proponents of an ill-fated project last year.

Ever since, with explicit and consistent support from this council, Higgins has developed a profile as an anti-turbine municipal representative. His perspective on industrial turbines, as expressed through a growing media profile and on his own statements on twitter, have not stopped at opposing turbines. He is one of a number of rural politicians who are taking on the Ontario Green Energy Act.

For North Frontenac, lining up against the Green Energy Act is consistent with the economic development vision of the current council. The recently approved amendment to the township's Official Plan expresses this idea. It describes the landscape character in North Frontenac as “unique and unspoiled” and this character is the key foundation for “future economic development opportunities including accommodations, high tech remote offices, recreational outfitters, small businesses, and specialty businesses such as craft breweries and artisan foods.”

The concluding sentence of the amendment is specific. “ ... It is a policy of Council to not support any large scale renewable energy project, along with mining and large scale manufacturing plants that will have a negative impact on the overall landscape of the township.

An Official Plan plays a legislating role in underpinning a township's comprehensive zoning bylaw, which determines what can be built, and where and under what conditions it can be built. It also expresses a more amorphous thing, a vision of the kind of community the existing council would like to see.

The vision expressed in the amendment is different from North Frontenac's past, where forestry, mining, hunting and fishing lodges, and cottage development have been the economic drivers. It is certainly odd to see specific references to things like craft brewing in the Official Plan of a rural and remote township such as North Frontenac.

Nonetheless, as planner Joe Gallivan said, the new clause is consistent with the rest of the plan and with the Provincial Policy Statement, and will be easily approved by Frontenac County over the next few months.

But one thing that North Frontenac Council is working on will be very difficult to achieve, for good reason.

They are seeking, along with a growing number of like-minded, mostly rural municipalities, to make municipal support mandatory for industrial wind turbine projects.

This is something that the province is not going to go for, no matter how hard it is pushed, no matter how much publicity is generated.

And for good reason. It would be a disaster if the province actually did give in to this demand.

In Canada there are levels of jurisdiction, and it is a long-standing principle of confederation that energy policy fits under provincial jurisdiction.

The province is responsible for ensuring power is available for almost 14 million residents, and hundreds of thousands of businesses. The municipality of North Frontenac has less than 2,000 permanent residents and up to 7,000 seasonal residents.

Those 9,000 electors are able to express themselves in provincial elections along with about 14 million other people, and that collective vote determines the province's policies over energy production. That makes sense because we all share the electricity grid.

The local council is charged with representing the interests of those people and there are a series of ways those interests can be protected, including environmental review tribunals and the court system.

Granting local municipalities a veto over energy projects is far, far beyond the pale and would be an absolute disaster. Every local municipality in Ontario would be able to veto every kind of energy project.

Over time we could all end up freezing in the dark.