Community Disengagement, Part II

Last November (2006), the stories of what went wrong with the planning and execution of the original bypass gave us all considerable pause. However, even as Maritime Electric continued to work on erecting the transmission line through our area, we resolved not to let the matter rest. This questionable corporate decision to proceed against community wishes would not proceed without a fight, at least. When one engages a powerful monopoly utility, it is good to call in support from others with power. Normally, the obvious starting place is with your elected representatives and government officials. I am sure other neighbours made these kind of overtures. On November 7, my brother Dylan, my brother Howlan and I wrote to the CEO of the PEI Energy Corporation, copying the correspondence to the Minister and Deputy Minister of the Department of the Environment, Energy, and Forestry, as well as the office of the Premier. These individuals are all key players in this wind energy endeavour. The PEI Energy Corporation worked and is working, on behalf of the province, in partnership with Maritime Electric to service Islanders and other markets with wind energy generated in this province. I also forwarded my letter to the community’s member of the Legislative Assembly.

We were brought up short by the shift in their attitude and tone as compared to six short months previous. All correspondence and concerns expressed in the spring of 2006 to government officials were acknowledged, and received with an apparent willingness to provide information, engage in dialogue, and work around community objections. By the fall, when support was really required, we were, to put it bluntly, ignored and stonewalled.

This was the most discouraging element of the whole process. For instance, my brothers and I received the same dismissive email from the CEO of the PEI Energy Corporation on November 17. Responding ten days after our original correspondence, this individual wrote to say, “I have concluded that there is some misunderstanding of the role of the PEI Energy Corporation…it has absolutely no responsibility for the transmission line feeding the wind farm. This responsibility rests entirely with Maritime Electric who has obtained its approvals from the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission and the Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry. The Corporation was not a "partner" in the applications for the approval of the transmission line project.”

I disagree with the convenient distinction made in this correspondence. The two entities are, in fact, partners in bringing the electricity generated at this installation to the marketplace. That the Corporation did not actually construct the line does not detract from the fact that they are responsible for its construction. The utility, who is indeed their partner in this endeavour, is not acting in good faith. Whether they like it or not, this reflects on the PEI Energy Corporation and it reflects on the wind energy installation as a project.

On behalf of the Department of the Environment, Energy and Forestry, we also got a letter, not from senior management to whom our correspondence was copied, but from the Acting Environmental Assessment Coordinator. He wrote to us on November 15 to say that when the government was informed of the prospect of the failed bypass and reviewed the activities of Maritime Electric on October 17, that they decided to take no action. As far as I have been able to tell, no one at the Department contacted anyone in the community as a part of this review. They did not seek any other input or insight into why the bypass failed. The Acting Coordinator wrote to us, saying that at the end of October, “Discussions took place around what other actions Maritime Electric had attempted in order to try to procure another alternate route and the department was satisfied that all reasonable options were exhausted.”

Recent months have proven, however, that “reasonable options” were not “exhausted” at all, and a phone call to any community member would have revealed this.

My mother and I visited our local member of the Legislative Assembly at that time. He promised to take the issue and problem to the Minister of the Environment, Energy and Forestry, but he has never gotten back to us as to the outcome of that conversation. I wrote to his office thanking him for his time and advocacy and asked him directly for an update on his meeting with the Minister, and received no further reply.

Feeling stymied and blocked by this weak attempt to explain and defend what had happened, my family, finally, hired a lawyer. He sent a letter stating our concerns to the Deputy Minister of the Department of the Environment, Energy and Forestry. Our letter was sent out by fax on November 17, 2006, and it was copied to Maritime Electric’s President, Customer Service.

We have never received any acknowledgment that this letter was received, or read, by any one at the Deputy Minister’s office. No feedback. Nothing.

Apparently the letter from the Acting Environmental Coordinator on November 14/15 was meant to deal with us, by simply stating that “the department was satisfied that all reasonable options were exhausted.”

This abandonment of the people of Grant Road/Gowan Brae is by far the most discouraging element of the bypass story. On the one hand, it indicated an unwillingness on the part of government officials, apparently also our elected representatives, to protect the interests of Island citizens. This is certainly bad enough. On the other hand, an even more troubling consideration is that they, when faced with the prospect of a conflict with the utility, found they were unable to protect the interests of Island citizens. What kind of government puts the interests of a monopoly utility before the interests of constituents? Either one that has assessed its ability to defend Islanders and decides it is too weak, or one that counts the voters in a small community and decides it does not care. This is a low view of politics, but they are the only two explanations I can come up with. If any government officials are reading this, I would like them to know that I would be overjoyed to be proven wrong on this point. Sadly, however, I feel I am right.

And now for one of the more interesting developments of this story. Stonewalled by our government officials and elected representatives, my family did, at this juncture, get an email from Maritime Electric on November 14. It invited us to meet. We did, on November 17, the same day that the letter went out from our legal representative. The contrast between utility responsiveness and government passivity and inaction could not have been more stark. My family, neighbours and I were surprised when Maritime Electric expressed regret at the failed bypass negotiations, and agreed to move the transmission line.

That is right: they agreed to move the transmission line.

They agreed to do this on November 20, and confirmed this intent on November 30.

They provided me with two written statements confirming this intent.

This is why we on Grant-Road/Gowan Brae have been working so hard since last fall to secure a reasonable alternate route. We have done this. Now the utility, with the apparent sanction of the government of Prince Edward Island and the PEI Energy Corporation, is dodging their commitment. Right at the moment of success, they put forth the excuse that they suddenly cannot “rationalize” the very route they have worked with us to secure.

(We are still using private landowner easements, but this time there is compensation. I have made my ethical qualms about this process known in the previous post, so there is no need to restate them here. Readers will note that a future post will discuss the need for designated transmission corridors.)

But this “rationalization” is a new step. It is one which was never a part of their process, either stated or implied, until very, very recently in all their correspondence and communications since last November. I have gone through it all with a fine-tooth comb, and in the next post I will document, point by point, the way the utility danced away from their reaffirmed November commitments. I will then put forth possible explanations for the timing of this shift. Maritime Electric’s change in tune was subtle, but it is as unmistakable as a guitar string that goes just a little bit flat in the middle of your favourite song.

If utility officials knew more about rural Prince Edward Island, they would have known that community dances are a lot of fun, but you’d better mind whose toes you step on unless you want a fight to break out.