The Municipality of Chatham-Kent has been advised that Transport Canada has issued an order requiring the eight wind turbines near Cedar Springs be removed by December 31, 2014.
Chatham-Kent officials say Transport Canada originally last year had issued a letter requesting “voluntary compliance”.
Mayor of Chatham-Kent, Randy Hope, says that “there is no safety issue so we need to change the regulation rather than force the removal of the turbines.” Hope adds, “Only the lawyers will win if this ends up in litigation.”
Hope says that the eight turbines in question are “considerably farther from the Chatham-Kent Airport than the CN Tower is from the Island Airport in Toronto.”
The municipality is surprised by this turn of events taken by Transport Canada. As recently as two months ago, the municipality’s Chief Legal Officer, John Norton, met with Transport Canada officials and proposed that the eight turbines be recognized as “exceptions”. This proposal was based on an aeronautical expert’s advice. Norton says that this simple solution would be a “one-time approval only for just these turbines” and would not affect the restriction of future construction near the airport.
The Municipality had been waiting for a reply from Transport Canada on this proposal and was surprised this week to learn that Transport Canada had taken this new step of issuing letters demanding that the turbines be removed.
The affected wind turbines are in a “no fly zone” south of the airport, which had been approved by NAV Canada prior to construction of these eight turbines. Pilots have not been allowed to fly in this area for quite some time. These wind turbines are located considerably south of the Chatham-Kent Municipal Airport. They were constructed in 2012.
Mayor Randy Hope says, “Transport Canada knew about the turbine locations prior to construction but didn’t notify anyone about this problem until after construction was completed. Transport Canada specifically approved the lighting on each of these eight turbines prior to construction.”
Chatham-Kent CAO Don Shropshire says, “It has been clearly established by multiple aeronautic consultants that there is no safety issue with the location of the eight turbines or their impact on airport operations at the Chatham-Kent Airport. There have been no safety issues at the Chatham-Kent Airport relating to the eight turbines since construction of the turbines was completed more than a year ago.”
John Norton says that Transport Canada might have made this order as a means of pressuring Chatham-Kent to “decertify” its municipal airport. Certification of an airport allows for an airport to attract commercial flights in the future, among other benefits. Norton says, “Decertification of the airport would solve this current legal problem, but we won’t agree to decertify our municipal airport because the airport is important to the economic vitality of our community.”
It is expected that GDF SUEZ, the owner of the affected turbines, will formally object to the order from Transport Canada and seek a hearing before the Minister of Transport through the process laid out in the Aeronautics Act.
