Ostrander Point Wind Project Goes Back To Tribunal

The Ontario Court of Appeal has reinstated the decision of the Environmental Review Tribunal on the Ostrander Point wind farm: The Renewable Energy Approval as issued by the Director (Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change) should not be upheld as issued, because of the harm that the project's roads would do to the endangered Blanding's Turtles who live in the immediate area. Now the Tribunal must decide whether amendments to the Approval could adequately protect the turtles.

The Tribunal ruled that the project would cause serious and irreversible harm to the Blanding's turtle population that uses the immediate area and that the proposed mitigation measures would not prevent that harm. They did not put much weight on the permit issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources under the Endangered Species Act. The court upheld the Tribunal's reasoning. Once the Tribunal decided that the proposed mitigation measures would not be effective in protecting turtles in