Rural councillors deny support for battery facility, as company seeks 'clear political signal'

CBC

15 hours ago

Rural councillors rejected a second attempt by Gatineau-based company Evolugen to win support for a large battery facility in rural west Ottawa, after 68 people weighed in over the course of a nearly 10-hour meeting Thursday.
Members of the city's agriculture and rural affairs committee voted unanimously to deny the company official backing for the project, though city council will have the final say next week.
The company has already won a contract to build the facility from the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), a Crown corporation responsible for managing Ontario's energy market.
Now, it needs a statement of support from Ottawa councillors.
West Carleton-March Coun. Clarke Kelly, whose ward would be home to the new facility, said he heard a clear message from residents.
"I feel like it's overwhelmingly against the project," he said in an interview. "I think even more specifically — against the project proposed in the location where it has been proposed."
That location is an approximately 4.5-hectare plot of rural land off Marchurst Road — roughly the area of eight Canadian football fields — located about 30 kilometres west of downtown Ottawa.
Evolugen, a Gatineau-based renewable energy company owned by Brookfield Renewable, is seeking to build a battery energy storage system (BESS) at the site.
BESS facilities are large batteries housed in containers that store renewable energy and feed it back into the grid at off-peak hours. The process to receive city council support for projects has proven difficult, though not impossible, with an Evolugen BESS in Coun. David Brown's ward garnering the unanimous backing in late 2023.
The technology is a key part of the Ford government's plan to solve a looming energy supply crunch, as demand in the province is expected to increase by 75 per cent by 2050.
But for many residents, the location of this particular battery trumped any broader provincial picture.
'Devil's bargain'
Across the dozens of people who spoke at the meeting, views were mixed.
Speakers representing business interests in the Kanata North tech park said companies there have "extreme needs" for power, and a local family-run construction company said building the facility would create good jobs.
Members of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, which is partnered with Evolugen on the project, called on the city to support Indigenous-led investment.
But most speakers were vehemently opposed. A petition against the project garnered more than 1,400 hand-written signatures.
Loss of farmland and the risk of fire or well water contamination were the most common concerns.
Courtney Argue, one of a large contingent donning matching t-shirts that read "Stop Marchurst BESS," lives about 400 metres from the proposed site.
"We are David vs. Goliath here. We have been stripped of our voices to fight this," Argue said, breaking into tears.
"We need you [councillors] to be loud and courageous to reject this [motion]. Our lives and our lands are depending on it."
Another speaker, Brian Martin, said he and other residents aren't afraid of the technology but are opposed to building on what he considers to be an ecologically sensitive location.
"This is the devil's bargain," he said. "They get all the gold, we get all the risks."
Company seeks 'clear political signal'
Evolugen is taking a second crack at winning support in the area.
The company previously tried to sell residents on a similar project that would have been built south of Fitzroy Harbor, about 13 kilometres away from the current site.
That project also faced intense community backlash, and the company later said its attempt at garnering support had not gone well.
The new site, according to the company, has fewer trees and does not encroach on wetlands. Crucially, it sits on a connection to the grid.
And this time around, Evolugen said it has redoubled efforts to win over locals.
"We've knocked on, I would say, almost every single door within two kilometres of the site," said Geoff Wright, senior vice-president of the company.
"We've had a number of conversations with people at their door. We've sat at peoples' kitchen tables."
Wright is now asking the city to endorse the project and send a "clear political signal" of interest.
Pressure from province
The renewed bid for support comes shortly after Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce sent a letter to Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe warning that slowing down BESS projects endangers growth.
The letter asked the city to "promptly review and approve" the projects, specifically singling out the South March BESS.
On May 25, the mayor's office received a letter from Evolugen seeking support, just days before a walk-on motion to council waived procedure and drastically accelerated the approval process.
Kelly pressed Wright on that timeline in a tense exchange during the meeting.
"Cutting that process short left my community in a difficult spot to prepare for today," he said in an interview.
"The message to my residents — so far in this process — is that provincial policies and the whims of provincial ministers and the IESO are more important than my residents' voices."
The committee unanimously approved a motion by Kelly asking city staff to request that Evolugen pays at least $250,000 per year into a community development fund for at least 20 years, should the project go ahead.
The issue goes to city council on June 11.