Wind projects an “uproar in the making”
Both the provincial government and the companies partnering with First Nations to construct wind farms in the Regional District need to properly consult with and get information out about planned projects to the community, especially if planning to build on private land, PRRD board of directors Chair Leonard Hiebert told fellow directors at the May 1 Committee of the Whole meeting.
“If they’re not going to have that, that’s going to be an uproar in the making.”
Thursday’s COW followed the regular board meeting, where Innergex Renewable Energy representatives gave a presentation about their wind project, Stewart Creek Wind Farm. Despite the presentation and Innergex’s willingness to return to speak with the board again, directors were left less than satisfied, especially considering concerns being brought to the rural directors from residents.
Hiebert applauded Area E director Dan Rose for asking Innergex some pointed questions about the impacts of the Stewart Creek project – which is planned for Area E in Groundbirch around Stewart Lake and Shell’s Saturn gas plant – on hunting, grazing, and recreation activities in the area.
“I know a lot of these projects are in the beginning phases, but you’re throwing a lot of misinformation out there, without accurate information to them and they’re having to fill in the gaps, with what they think might be happening,” Hiebert said.
“Community members are already being approached by Innergex landmen and the numbers I’m hearing from my constituents are they’re asking for possibly 700 to 1,000 acres of land for projects on private land. That’s a lot of land to take out of private.”
One of the emails the board received from residents was read out by Corporate Officer Tyra Henderson at the COW, expressing concern about the land agents who have been canvassing individuals in the Farmington and Bessborough areas west and northwest of Dawson Creek.
There have been no community information sessions, and some people are growing concerned, the resident wrote.
“If they’re not even including all the First Nations, then where does that leave us?”
Board Chair, Leonard Hiebert
“We need a say, and we need clarity from the beginning of these industrial proposals, not after contracts have been signed with landowners and heavy equipment rolls in,” Henderson read.
According to Innergex’s Senior Project Developer, Cara Vickers, these approaches to landowners are part of an effort to prepare for future wind projects which they want to establish on private land. The Stewart Creek project is on Crown Land.
Area C director Brad Sperling noted that it’s not only Innergex that deficient in its communication with the public, but EDF Renewables as well, which is the company partnered with Saulteau First Nations to build the Taylor Wind project and received an electricity purchase agreement from BC Hydro in January 2025.
“They haven’t come or explained themselves to us really. Some of it is on agricultural land – so what are we losing there,” Sperling said.
These leases are 30-40 pages long and are seeking to lease quarter sections (160 acres) at a time, and as Sperling understands it, they put a wind turbine on a quarter section and allow the landowner to farm that quarter section, under their conditions.
Sperling says clarification is needed, but his concern is that if the landowner doesn’t want to farm that quarter section under the company’s conditions, that’s a quarter of farmland that’s taken out of production.
“That’s pretty alarming. Why are these things even going on agricultural land? Why are they looking at private agricultural land versus Crown land?”
The regional board has asked several times for commitments from the province to provide cumulative impact assessments, reclamation and responsible asset disposal plans, and economic benefits agreements for all these proposed projects, to no avail.
“You look at the responses we get from the Ministry of Energy, they basically brush off our concerns about cumulative effects. We’ve got these wind farms going in next oil and gas wells, that’s cumulative. It’s not just wind farms,” said Sperling.
Hiebert said that the letter from the Premier in response to the regional district’s letter regarding the commitments they’ve asked for is basically a run-around.
“We’re not asking for these recommendations for the fun of it.”
Pouce Coupe director and mayor Danielle Veach feels that the regional district directors are doing their part, but they’re not being listened to.
“I think it’s become very evident that they’re not listening to us, and they’re not going to listen to the constituents. I think the people around here already don’t feel heard, they already don’t feel like anybody listens to them and we’re trying on behalf of them, but it’s getting to the point where they don’t have to listen to anybody, they can just push things through,” Veach said.
People throughout the region are going to be affected by these projects, and they’re being kept in the dark. It’s going to come to a point where we need to take it to the people, she said.
“Because at the end of the day, while we represent them, they have a much larger, louder and can be far more abrasive than we can.
“Even today, during the presentation that we had, our questions aren’t even being properly answered. They’re not even really answering them; they’re just giving us this run around answer.”
Not only are the government and the companies behind the wind projects not properly consulting with landowners in the regional district, they’re also not consulting with First Nations who are affected.
Chief Trevor Makadahay of Doig River First Nation also wrote a letter to Energy Minister Adrian Dix expressing concerns over the two proposed wind projects that are located within DRFN’s Planning Are and Landscape Planning Pilot Area, which ignore the Province’s commitment to manage cumulative effects, and the intention to eliminate Environmental Assessment (EA) requirements for these projects.
Concerns that are nearly identical to those expressed by the Peace River Regional District.
Hiebert said that Chief Makadahay’s letter to the fact that they’re not even being consulted with. “Especially the Taylor Wind Project which is right beside them, and I support their frustrations in this letter. It’s unfortunate that our government still hasn’t learned how to do proper consultation.”
“If they’re not even including all the First Nations, then where does that leave us?”
Like a lot of recent initiatives from the provincial government, this push for renewable energy has no regulations yet. Premier David Eby and Energy Minister Adrian Dix have said that the BC Energy Regulator will be the body to regulate these projects, but as of Thursday, that piece of legislation – Bill 14, the Renewable Energy Projects (streamlined permitting) Act – was still on second reading.
The board has written to the BCER and spoken to the Agricultural Land Commission, both are in what he calls a “hurry-up and wait scenario” waiting to see if Bill 14 passes, and the details of the regulations that come out of that.
In the meantime, landowners, First Nations and the board are waiting too, becoming more frustrated with the chronic lack of information and consultation.
“They’re tired of being told here it is, this is what’s happening, get used to it.”