Statement from Councillor Kelly on Potential BESS Proposal in West Carleton-March
January 8, 2025
Today, I have received calls and emails from several people in the Thomas A. Dolan Pkwy and Marchurst Rd. area regarding a potential proposal for a Battery Energy Storage Facility.
What has prompted this is the presence of surveyors in the area. I cannot confirm who has hired the surveyors, whether it is the applicant, Evolugen, or the landowner with whom they are currently working. I have not been provided this information by anyone at this point. It has been months since the company has spoken to me or my office, although I have heard from various landowners in the area that they have been approached by Evolugen, looking for a new site for their proposal after receiving a lot of negative feedback from the public in the area where it was originally proposed, at the corner of Galetta Side Rd. and Homesteaders Rd.
Based on this public feedback, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, followed by Council, actively decided against providing a municipal support resolution for this proposed project. The entire process, however, is not an application process that is managed or executed by the City of Ottawa. This is a provincial process run by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).
Despite the applicant not being granted an MSR, the IESO still decided to grant Evolugen the contract, and that company has 20 months to try and convince Ottawa City Council of the merits of the project and that they have done the work necessary to gain the trust and support of the community.
I am scheduled to meet with a representative of the applicant this Friday and sincerely hope that more details, along with their plan to engage the community, will be presented. I will remind all of my constituents that my one promise in the last election was that I would always listen to you and that my positions would be informed by the consensus in the community. I am disappointed in the fact that I, along with the public, am again finding out about this company’s plans through rumours and Facebook posts.
A major issue that I had with the original procurement for a BESS facility was the lack of community input and the poor communication that we received from the company. I was hopeful that these things had changed in the time since City Council decided to deny a Municipal Support Resolution and that further consultation and clearer communications in the future would be the outcome. Clearly, this has not been the case, and my office has been left trying to interpret tiny morsels of information to be able to explain to residents what is or is not happening.
I would like to be better informed about what the plans are moving forward for this company and their potential project so that I can share with residents what is happening, rather than leaving everybody in the dark in the face of a decision that will impact this community for decades to come.
I look forward to hearing the feedback from the community.
If you would like to see how I approached this debate in the past and how important public consultation is to me as your representative, please feel free to watch the highlights of our first debate on the issue here:
How to contact our office and stay up to date with Ward 5 issues:
Email: Clarke.Kelly@Ottawa.ca
Ward 5 | West Carleton-March
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