City withholds review of solar farm

City of Edmonton officials have refused to publicly release their take on the potential environmental damage Epcor’s solar farm could cause in the river valley.

That’s left conservation advocates baffled. They’ll appeal, but wonder why such important information would be withheld, potentially until it’s no longer useful.

“City council should at least see it,” said Eric Gormley, who tried to obtain the document through a formal freedom of information request and was turned down last week. Gormley is a member of the Edmonton River Valley Conservation Coalition.

The $26-million solar farm would be an expansion of the existing E.L. Smith Water Treatment Plant in southwest Edmonton. If approved, it would produce 20,000 MWh of local renewable energy annually using 45,000 solar panels.

As part of its rezoning application, Epcor was required to do an evaluation of the effect building the 23-hectare solar farm in the river valley would have on the environment. Epcor hired Stantec to do the assessment and the city conducted a technical review of that assessment.

However, the technical review has not been made public. Gormley’s team was first told it would be released after council made its final decision.

Now it’s unclear to them if the city ever intends to release it.

The rezoning application went to council June 17 and was sent back so both Epcor and city officials could work with Enoch First Nation to understand its concerns regarding evidence ceremonies were conducted at the proposed site. There’s no date yet for its return to council.

Gormley said without having access to the technical review, there’s no way to evaluate how robust Epcor’s work was and get a second opinion. When he applied to see the nine-page document, eight of the pages were withheld.

City freedom of information co-ordinator Richelle Brazil listed section 24(1)(a)(b). That’s a section officials can apply at their discretion for anything the city deems “advice from officials.”

Under that section, information can be refused to be disclosed if “the disclosure could reasonably be expected to reveal advice, proposals, recommendations, analyses or policy options developed by or for a public body.”

City officials declined to comment further Friday.

Coun. Andrew Knack said that when council sent back the rezoning application, it asked city administration to bring forward all the “necessary information” for council to make an informed decision. He believes that should include the technical review.

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t have access to all of that information,” said Knack. He had not seen the technical review yet. “When you have information like that’s not being shared, it feels incomplete.”

Gormley said he will request the province’s information and privacy commissioner review the city’s decision to withhold the technical review.