Orangeville.com
Will the province’s Renewable Energy Approval (REA) process pass a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms litmus test? Despite objection from the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) has agreed to hear a constitutional challenge to the REA process in Shelburne next week.

“That’s the big news. They’re willing to sit and listen,” said Dennis Sanford, president of Wind Resistance Melancthon. “Certain rights have been squashed or ignored through the whole (REA) process and we’re trying to call attention to that fact.” The province recently gave Dufferin Wind Power Inc. the green light to construct a 99 MW wind farm in Melancthon and run a 230 kV transmission line from that site to Amaranth. Both Sanford and the citizen’s advocacy group, Conserving Our Rural Environment (CORE), promptly appealed that approval to the ERT.

After pre-hearings held earlier this month, the ERT is willing to hear…