Despite a great deal of back and forth regarding Capital Power’s request for support on natural gas expansions, Windsor City Council has voted 8-2 in favour of the request.
During Monday afternoon's meeting, councillors Fabio Costante and Angelo Marignani were the only two members opposed to the request.
Council heard from a number of delegates, from members of the Windsor Essex Youth Climate Council to residents throughout the city, who were opposed to the move due to wanting to protect climate action and neighbourhood health.
Following the vote, a handful of people in the crowd booed and screamed "shame" at city council.
Capital Power, located at the corner of Cadillac Street and Riverside Drive in east Windsor, currently generates 92 megawatts of energy for Ontario’s grid.
The proposal that was approved aims to add 100 megawatts of capacity by building two new natural gas turbines to bridge the power gap on the 1.5 acre site.
Mayor, Drew Dilkens, says Windsor, the provincial government and the federal government are in control of different things when it comes to this expansion.
"The decision on who to contract with, how much power to contract, how long the contracts are, who pays if there's an early termination, all of the details of the contract fall on the IESO. And so, there's a whole host of things that fall under our control, and then there's a whole host of things that fall under the control and the responsibility of the provincial government, a whole host of things that fall under the control and the responsibility of the federal government."
Ward 9 Councillor, Kieran McKenzie, says this expansion is one of the challenges that comes along with the new electric vehicle battery plant.
"It's about making tough choices that do have environmental implications, while at the same time are there to help facilitate the incredible opportunity that we have in front of us with the NextStar battery plant. And, to be able to work through that process as much as that announcement has been a blessing for our community, it also has brought challenges. This is one of those challenges."
Ward 6 Councillor, Jo-Anne Gignac, says with more development comes more electricity needed for those builds.
"In terms of the economic development to opportunities that are presenting themselves now for the province of Ontario, the infrastructure to support the movement of electricity around the province, it needs a lot of attention. So, this is a short-term approach to making sure that the gaps are filled."
Ward 10 Councillor, Jim Morrison, says new developers need assurance the city has reliable power.
"This is a way for us to have insurance because we need to have reliable power. We've promised these new employers to our city that they will have reliable power, we know that there's always the potential that we need other ways to generate some more power. Let's hope we don't need it, but it has to be there."
Ward 2 Councillor, Fabio Costante, was applauded by the crowd when he mentioned that he wouldn't be supporting the request.
He says there's no question that the Earth is in an environmental crisis.
"The last term of council passed the Climate Emergency Declaration, and we also endorsed the phasing out of gas plants, and so to me when I make a decision of this nature it starts with a high degree of scrutiny and a very high threshold. And so, there's not question that we're in an environmental crisis, not just locally but across the globe."
Costante adds that he doesn't see the urgency in moving forward with this request.
"And I'm failing to see, in a very conclusive way, the urgency. And there's a lot of discussion on speculation on what this could mean. There was a lot of question marks on GHG emissions, and to me when we're looking at the balancing act, I'm not convinced that this is the way forward. I think we can do a better job on leaning on this front. I'm not convinced this is going to jeopardize economic development."
Windsor Mayor, Drew Dilkens, added that future economic developments, such as the NextStar EV battery plant, rely on projects such as this one.
Now that the request has been approved by council, it will now go to the Independent Electricity Systems Operator for a final decision.
-with files from CTV Windsor