Centre Wellington councillors feel they are in the dark as to why municipal support is being requested for local solar projects.
Director of planning Brett Salmon considered himself the patsy to undertake the report.
He said that starting in August, the province started version 2.0 of the FIT (Feed in Tariff) program to get approval from the Ontario Power Authority for access to the electrical grid.
“In the rules, the province has included an evaluation which awards points to applicants,” said Salmon.
In that setup, he added, one of the ways applicants can get points towards a successful application is by having a resolution of support from the municipality.
Salmon said immediately after the new rules were announced, new applications started coming in.
Sometimes those applications were directed to the clerk’s department, other times to the planning or building departments, or to the CAO.
Salmon said there are currently a half dozen requests looking for resolutions of council support. He clarified that all the requests were for rooftop solar projects.
After some investigation, he said it appeared the municipality had two choices: either review each request individually, or consider a blanket resolution of support for such projects.
Salmon said that based on the number of requests thus far, management did not believe it had the resources to deal with each application separately.
“We decided, if this was going to happen, it would only be via a blanket resolution and everyone gets treated the same way,” Salmon said.
One question centred on the potential municipal liability by supporting projects such as this.
Salmon noted the form later changed to indicate the support from municipalities was only to earn points for a FIT application approval.
“I think the implication is, that without a support application, those projects might not rise to the top of the list.”
Salmon added the resolution would only be in effect for one year. He said staff does not wish to be left in the position of evaluating each request separately.
Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj said she had yet to get a straight answer as to why the municipality would offer its endorsement of an outside application.
Salmon agreed he did not have an answer either.
Chief Administrative Officer Andy Goldie noted Guelph-Eramosa council said “no” for similar reasons.
“They did not know why they were being asked for support.”
Goldie said, “At the end of the day, the people making the applications just want to know one way or the other so they can complete their applications.”
Staff, he said, are simply looking for direction from council.
Councillor Kirk McElwain asked whether these projects need to meet certain requirements.
Salmon said for the most part, they are exempt.
“They need building permits. That’s it. Under the regulations of the Green Energy Act, we are not allowed to impose any other rules such as site plan approval or zoning,” said Salmon.
McElwain said that like other projects, some are appropriate and others are not. He questioned whether a blanket endorsement by council would put the municipality at risk.
Salmon said, “It is odd that we’ve been put into this position, but the FIT program does exist, and there are solar panels out there already on buildings in Centre Wellington.”
Salmon said his guess was the power authority is using this as a means to screen applications.
Councillor Walt Visser said all this seemed to do “is add a name to the list if something goes wrong. Even if the lawyer says there is no liability, when they use a shotgun approach, they sue everyone.
“I see no reason to approve this.”
Visser opposed the FIT program in general, but his main argument centred on why the municipality would support anything it has no say over.
Councillor Steve VanLeeuwen said these are not the smaller projects for homes.
Salmon said these projects were larger than the MicroFIT projects, but still considered small scale.
“The enquiries are mainly from commercial buildings which want to install panels on rooftops,” he said.
Councillor Kelly Linton said his problem was the look.
“If you can imagine … a heritage building with solar panels on them.”
Whether or not the municipality is liable, Linton said this could fly in the face of its design guideline efforts to make sure things fit in the community.
Salmon suggested that such projects would still need heritage permits – but would be exempted from planning applications.
Ross-Zuj said these applications can still move forward – with or without council support.
Council’s position was that the municipality does not support either individual or blanket resolutions for FIT projects.
Ross-Zuj said council does not want to provide a blanket acceptance of solar projects when the municipality has no control of the project or its installation.
