Municipality could earn $500K per year

Heather Wright/The Independent

Venfor Inc says 17 landowners in Brooke-Alvinston have signed lease agreements for a wind energy project.

Last September, the development company’s director, Peter Budd from nearby Adelaide-Metcalfe, came to Brooke-Alvinston council with the idea, saying the company was gauging interest in the project. 

Budd will return to council Thursday to talk about the project which is expected to have about 20 wind turbines straddling the border of the two municipalities.

In the materials provided to council for the meeting, Venfor says 17 landowners have signed leases for the project in Brooke-Alvinston. Those leases are expected to generate between $1 million and $1.5 million over the 20 to 30 year life of the project.

“Landowners are sophisticated and know what they are signing up for,” Budd writes in his proposal to council. “Some landowners are clear that they could benefit from the incremental annual income; some simply like supporting clean, carbon-free energy and doing their part. Others are keen to pass on their lands and compound the income to pay the capital gains taxes on succession. 

“Whatever environmental or health concerns might have surfaced 20 years ago did not materialize,” Budd states.

“Landowner logic is often expressed as a sentiment that if we are to advance our energy needs, why not do it here and bring in revenue to our family and the municipality?” Budd writes.

While Budd was met with skepticism when he first approached council – some councillors told him they simply didn’t trust him – there is interested municipally in at least the cash the project could bring in.

Venfor, Budd said, would work out a community support agreement which could bring as much as $500,000 to Brooke-Alvinston each year. That’s much needed revenue in the municipality which has been hobbled by provincial funding cuts in the last 10 years.

The actual amount of the municipal payment will be negotiated based on the number of megawatts begin produced in Brooke-Alvinston.

One of the big problems with wind projects in the last decade have been the mess they left behind. 

Municipalities, such as Plympton-Wyoming, have seen roads destroyed by the construction equipment. The companies then contributed to the road reconstruction once the work was done.

Venfor’s presentation includes a road use agreement – the beginning of negotiations about the project. 

Clerk Administrator Janet Denkers told council May 22, Venfor would have a public presentation at the May 29th meeting and then would meet privately with council.

Budd’s report to council says Venfor hopes to submit a project to the Independent Energy System Operator in October. It would take a year for the IESO to make a decision. Budd’s presentation says power, and the cash that comes with it, wouldn’t start flowing until 2029.