When wind developers come knocking, Dawn-Euphemia wants to be ready.

It’s considering changes to its Building Fees which would set fees for industrial wind turbines.

“In the bylaw we had before, wind and solar was captured in some other category,” says CAO Mike Schnare. “Wind fell between commercial industrial and the ground mounted solar really didn’t fall anywhere.

“This was a way of getting definite fees in place.”

Schnare says the township studied a number of other municipalities’ bylaws to craft its own rules. “We got at look at Plympton-Wyoming and Bluewater’s bylaws – that’s where the fee started. Bluewater had all the justifications for it,” says Schnare.

Each industrial turbine will be subject to a $14,000 fee, just like Plympton-Wyoming’s. Solar rooftop installations will cost $374 per panel for a building permit. Those that are ground mounted will be $500. Those fees are based on the cost of inspection.

“We really hadn’t applied our minds to the idea of turbine fees…we didn’t have wind turbines that came anywhere close to the building stage…We wanted to look at it in case (the wind developers) would come back with a project.”

Really hadn’t applied our minds to it – we didn’t have wind turbines that came anywhere close to the building stage

“We want to be prepared – Mainstream was the developer interested in building here; they have since cancelled leases here,” says Schnare.

“There is no active wind developer in Dawn-Euphemia this is just to put a fee in place so if they come they know what the fees are.”

Dawn-Euphemia will hold a public meeting on the proposed changes Feb. 17 at the municipal office.