A Strong Foundation Part 2: Community Engagement

Transcription

1 A Strong Foundation Part 2: Community Engagement An exploration of what effective engagement looks like through a project s development, construction, and operations phases CanWEA Spring Forum 2018 April 10, 4:15 5:00 pm Polling question to be displayed as we get wired. 1

2 Introductions Tracy Walden, Director of Media and Communications, CanWEA Mayor Chris Warwick, Town of Hanna, Alberta Michele Del Colle, Energy, Utilities, and Policy Specialist, Farmer s Advocate Office, Government of Alberta Ryan O Connor, Project Manager, EDP Renewables Jay Shukin, Manager, Indigenous & Stakeholder Engagement, Capital Power Corporation Al Kemmere, President, Rural Municipalities of Alberta (formerly AADMC) & Councillor for Mountain View County, Alberta Tracy to open the session. We have an excellent representation of interests here today. We ll start with introductions (2 3 minutes per panelists) so the audience can get a sense of the depth of experience and breadth of perspectives on the panel. Start with Chris. 2

3 Top Four Lessons Learned About Engagement 1. We must know our stakeholders, our communities and their interests 2. Start early, make it meaningful and keep going 3. Social license is necessary, it benefits all parties and it must be earned 4. Be sensitive to the distinct nature of engagement with Indigenous communities practices A year ago CanWEA was here hosting our Alberta Summit. At that time I presented our Best Practices Guide on Indigenous and Public Engagement (Michele was here too for that panel on engagement). Today, our panel will discuss and debate up to five questions we ll see how many we get through and each one is an exploration of one of these lessons that underpin our engagement guide. These lessons seem simple enough but each is like the tip of an iceberg. Let s go to Lesson One. 3

4 Lesson One: Know Your Community Public opinion polling in Alberta and Ontario in 2017 shows: 83% AB, 89% ON Believe climate change is happening 22% AB, 10% ON Climate change is natural, not human induced 54% AB, 74% ON Believe immediate/significant action needed 61% AB, 72% ON Agree province should encourage development of non emitting electricity to reduce carbon emissions 60% AB, 58% ON Support provincial government policy that encourages the development of wind power content/uploads/2018/03/canwea SurveyReport Feb2018 Released.pdf Polling is one way to learn a bit about communities. Here are some recent findings from pubic opinion polling we commissioned in November, with the research firm Innovative Research. As you can see, a very high percentage of respondents believe climate change is happening and that humans are causing it. We see a majority agree the province should encourage the development of nonemitting electricity to reduce carbon emissions. And we are very happy to see that a majority of respondents in Alberta and Ontario support policy for wind energy development. Wind energy development happens one project at a time and that means getting to know each community, understanding their concerns and circumstances, and learning about how a project might affect the community and what kinds of engagement activities might be effective or appropriate. That leads us to our first panel discussion. 4

5 Know Your Community Hanna is a community that is experiencing negative impacts related to the coal phase out the same phase out that is creating opportunities for significant wind energy development. What are some of the issues at play in communities adversely affected by the coal phase out and what can the wind industry do to relate effectively and positively? Let s start with the Mayor of the Town of Hanna, Chris Warwick. 5

6 Know Your Community Sometimes the introduction of wind energy can create divisions within a community as people experience the project from different perspectives e.g. how close or far, how using the land, how perceiving the impacts or benefits, etc. What are some of the issues that contribute to this polarization and what engagement strategies are helpful for communicating about local benefits and how to get people on board? Start with Ryan O Connor from EDP Renewables. 6

7 Lesson Two: Start Early, Make it Meaningful A new U.S. survey by Berkeley Lab of 1700 citizens living near wind has important findings about the planning process National Survey of Attitudes of Wind Power Project Neighbors neighbor survey Key finding: Attitudes and annoyance by the planning process explain 61% of the variation in the reported sound annoyance Strongly annoyed respondents reported: stronger negative attitude; stronger planning process annoyance; and less fair planning process Next we ll have a look at Lesson Two starting early and making engagement meaningful. We ve been following this new U.S. research that surveyed 1700 people living near wind energy. Berkeley is just now analyzing it and putting their findings through the peer review process. This research is helpful because, among the many interesting things it touches on, it reinforces what our experience has shown which is that perceptions of the planning process have a significant impact on levels of annoyance with other elements of a project, such as annoyance with sound, or flicker, for example. There is one take away in particular that the researchers articulated that we ll focus on for our discussion today (next slide). Background for Reference Only: Overall U.S. annoyance is rather low and the number of strongly annoyed residents is few. Strongly annoyed residents report stronger negative attitude, stronger planning process annoyance, and less fair planning process. Attitudes and annoyance by the planning process explain 61% of the variation in the sound annoyance stress, though direction of the causation is unclear. Physical parameters such as distance and demographic characteristics do not explain U.S. wind turbine sound annoyance stress. 7

8 Start Early, Make it Meaningful A recommendation from the researchers is that any efforts to improve the planning process might greatly help to reduce annoyance and related symptoms related to living near turbines. Can the panel comment on expectations, challenges and solutions for including community stakeholders in the planning process early (formally and informally), and be specific about how and when input from the community can actually influence project planning or design? We ll start with Michele Del Colle from the Alberta Farmers Advocate Office. 8

9 Engagement Throughout the Project Lifecycle Our next question is about engagement on the other end of the project lifecycle. Here is a snapshot of wind energy in Alberta today. With nearly 1500 MW of installed capacity, Alberta has 901 turbines. The Renewable Electricity Program (REP) puts the province on track to develop another 4,000 MW which means many more turbines. All turbines have a lifecycle and when they get near the end it becomes a matter of decommissioning or repowering. With orphan oil and natural gas wells being a problem in Alberta, we have seen a growing interest in what will happen with the wind energy facilities when they get to the end of planned life cycles. 9

10 Engagement Throughout the Project Lifecycle Landowners, local leaders and communities are interested in learning more about what happens to a wind energy facility at the end of its planned life cycle or if a company becomes insolvent along the way. Can the panel comment on these end of life concerns and provide recommendations to help with transparency and informed decision making? That leads us to our next question. We ll start with Jay Shukin, Manager of Indigenous and Stakeholder Engagement with Capital Power. 10

11 Lesson Three: Social License Must be Earned 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer trust is in crisis around the world Social license is a broad area of research and practice. We want to zero in on earning trust and battling misinformation in today s world of fake news and alternative news and echo chambers where we just pick the news we like which makes it hard to communicate effectively. We know that what we are observing is related to a broader crisis in trust that is occurring globally. Edelman has been measuring public trust for 18 years and we d like to share with you a one minute clip from the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer to give you a sense of what s at play. Then we will discuss the ripple effects from this trust crisis that are evident with wind energy projects (and all of the other energy projects too). PLAY VIDEO Background for reference only: The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust is in crisis around the world. The general population s trust in all four key institutions business, government, NGOs, and media has declined broadly, a phenomenon not reported since Edelman began tracking trust among this segment in With the fall of trust, the majority of respondents now lack full belief that the overall system is working for them. In this climate, people s societal and economic concerns, including globalization, the pace of innovation and eroding social values, turn into fears, spurring the rise of populist actions now playing out in several Western style democracies. To rebuild trust and restore faith in the system, institutions must step outside of their traditional roles and work toward a new, more integrated operating model that puts people and the addressing of their fears at the center of everything they do. 11

12 Lesson Three: Social License Must be Earned I have an example of how we are bumping up against this lack of trust in the wind industry. CanWEA recently ran this video ad on Facebook and we received many comments expressing complete disbelief in the message. PLAY VIDEO We saw similar reactions in focus groups that CanWEA hosted last spring where there was a high degree of disbelief of the accurate information, and on the flip side, there was also strong believe in inaccurate information. So we have a lot of work to do. 12

13 Social License Must be Earned The Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust is in crisis around the world, but it also shows that businesses have a chance to lead: 77 per cent agree that a company can take specific actions that improve the economic and social conditions in the community where it operates. What do you think the wind industry can do to build trust and social acceptance of wind energy? The good news is that the same research shows that business, especially Canadian companies, have a chance to lead the way to restore trust. 77 per cent agree that a company can take specific actions that improve the economic and social conditions in the community where it operates. We ll start with Mayor Warwick. 13

14 Your Questions Community Engagement Tracy Walden, Director of Media and Communications, CanWEA Mayor Chris Warwick, Town of Hanna, Alberta Michele Del Colle, Energy, Utilities, and Policy Specialist, Farmer s Advocate Office, Government of Alberta Ryan O Connor, Project Manager, EDP Renewables Jay Shukin, Manager, Indigenous & Stakeholder Engagement, Capital Power Corporation Al Kemmere, President, Rural Municipalities of Alberta (formerly AADMC) & Councillor for Mountain View County, Alberta We ll try to save time for questions from the floor or via the app. 14