Construction has begun on Alberta Powerline’s 500kV Fort McMurray West transmission line, linking the northeast Alberta city to the Capital Region. The $1.5-billion, 500-kilometre long project was given final approval earlier this year and is expected to be completed in 2019.
As part of the construction process, Alberta Powerline was required to reach agreements with landowners impacted by the line.
Everyone has signed off, but they’re not all happy about it.
“What I will be seeing pretty much every morning is 80-metre skeletons sticking up in the air,” said Richard Skermer, whose property near Genesee will have five transmission towers built on it.
Construction will require the removal of a large number of trees, which Skermer says is prime habitat for moose and other wildlife in the area.
“Every objection that we’ve raised — that native bands have raised, other landowners have raised — completely ignored.”
The root of the feeling from Skermer comes from the fact the project was deemed critical by the previous Progressive Conservative government, which allowed the line to be approved without the completion of a needs assessment. All that was up for debate was which route it would take.
During the approval process, Alberta Powerline proposed two different routes and the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) decided the one that runs through Skermer’s yard was the best choice.
“We understand how important this is to people,” AUC external relations director Jim Law said.
“It’s their land, it can be their livelihood, so we look at it very carefully.”
The AUC held a public hearing into the line where impacted stakeholders could bring forward concerns, ask questions directly to Alberta Powerline and even propose alternate routes. Skermer did just that, but the panel found his proposal to be unfeasible.
“It would have been a much more costly option,” Law added. “It would have brought the lines to others who hadn’t even been consulted about the project and it wouldn’t have affected any fewer number of residents.”
Alberta Powerline admits the line will have an impact on everyone along the route, but the company believes it has done all it can to mitigate expectations through public consultations.
“There were open houses with 10 different areas and 10 different communities to have landowners and impacted stakeholders come in and start sharing information,” said Carey Kostyk, a vice president with ATCO, one of the partner companies that makes up Alberta Powerline.
The route was designed to take into account the impact on traditional First Nations’ lands, caribou migration areas and individual landowners. By the time the hearing began, most of the impacted stakeholders had already signed agreements.
“I really believe we got to the least overall impacts for this line,” Kostyk said.