TIGNISH – It wasn’t her place to speak, but Tignish resident Mary Rae Lambert managed a one-word response Tuesday when Tignish Municipal Council voted against allowing wind turbines in the community.
“Hallelujah,” Lambert gasped before showering the council with applause. They voted 5-0 against a proposed official plan amendment to allow windmills in Tignish.
It was Lambert who was most vocal against windmills during a public meeting two weeks ago. She made a presentation to council at the start of Tuesday’s meeting outlining her opposition, not knowing that the Tignish Planning Board had decided during a meeting last week to recommend that council deny the application.
Coun. Alan Gavin, who made the motion in support of the planning board’s recommendation, acknowledged following the meeting that this will not likely be the last time wind development is discussed in Tignish.
“I’m not saying that it’s dead, but we’ve got to make sure that when we go ahead with it everybody is satisfied with it,” he said.
Gavin said he got the sense that most people at the public meeting and monthly meeting of Council were against the proposed amendment.
It was a building permit application from the Tignish Sports Association that got the process rolling. That organization was hoping to be take advantage of government funding to put up wind turbines to help power the Tignish Credit Union Arena.
Gavin suggested uncertainty about the regulations prompted the Planning Board to recommend for council to deny the amendment.
“I’m afraid it’s going ahead too fast and we’re going to have windmills on every single coast,” Lambert said in explaining her opposition.