Chatham-Kent will not be joining the 157 municipalities that have already said no to the future builds of wind farms.
In a motion brought forth by Ward 4 Councillor Rhonda Jubenville at Monday's council meeting, council voted 11-3 against the proposal of being an "Unwilling Host" to new wind turbine builds.
A concern for council was wanting to not use such a final statement and approach each new wind turbine proposal on a case-by-case basis.
"While I am familiar with some of the challenges North Kent has had, I have also seen in West Kent really great community engagement and support and benefit from the Romney Wind Project that has taken place without any of the water or well issues that have come to play," said Ward 1 Councillor Melissa Harrigan. "So it's challenging for me as a councillor to provide support to something that is a blanket policy statement when I see that there is an opportunity for us as a municipality to really look deeply at individual applications should they come knocking on our door."
While the other Ward 4 councillor voted against the motion, Jamie McGrail did want it known she would not be voting in favour of more wind turbines in North Kent.
"Going forward I want to make it very, very clear that if a project does come to North Kent, I will not be supporting it because of what we already learned in North Kent. But I need to learn more right now to properly proceed in going with the next steps," said McGrail.
In the end, Jubenville wasn't surprised by the result of the vote.
"They didn't want to issue a flat-out no. But, to me, it's black or white, you're either pro-wind turbines or against wind turbines," she said. "They are leaving the door open to make it sound like as each procurement comes in we will assess it and vote on that individually. But the fact of the matter is there is money accompanying all these potential industrial wind turbine complexes."
Despite the vote, Jubenville says she will continue to fight for residents of Chatham-Kent who have been affected by wind turbines, and those who are against more of them coming to Chatham-Kent.
"I can't risk the health and wellbeing of the residents of Chatham-Kent for money," said Jubenville.
