Ottawa: A decision April 22 of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a lawsuit by landowners seeking damages because, the landowners claimed, a proposed Ontario wind development reduced their property values.
As the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) noted, at the request of the defendant project developer, the Court took the evidence filed by the plaintiffs as proven. The Court did this “in order to place the plaintiffs’ cases at their most favourable for the purpose of these motions.” The Court held that, even assuming the facts alleged as proven, the case should not proceed to trial and granted summary judgment to the project developer. The decision by Madam Justice Healey states: “The reason that each of the claims is being dismissed is that our law does not award damages without proof of an actionable wrong giving rise to liability.”
“The fact is the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is not currently altering property assessments in Ontario as a result of wind energy projects,” said Robert Hornung, President of CanWEA. “As a responsible industry, we continue to communicate with the Ontario Real Estate Association and MPAC to ensure we are reviewing all new and credible information on the important subject of property values. Wind energy projects are delivering significant benefits to local economies – creating new jobs and injecting millions of dollars in new revenues for landowners and municipalities.”
In a 2011 recent Assessment Review Board hearing in Ontario focused on wind turbines and property values, MPAC argued that there was no evidence to show that construction and operation of wind turbines had reduced the current value of the landowner’s property.
A 2010 report prepared by Canning Consultants Inc. for CanWEA that studied 83 properties in the Chatham-Kent region found that “In the study area where wind farms were clearly visible, there was no empirical evidence to indicate that rural residential properties realized lower sale prices than similar residential properties within the same area that were outside of the view shed of a wind turbine.”