King council Monday night passed an interim control bylaw in order to stall the construction of the peaker power plant slated to go in the Holland Marsh.

It is to be developed by Pristine Power Inc. and run by York Energy Centre.

Local residents who have been fighting the proposal were pleased with the way things went, but officials with Pristine Power said they couldn’t understand what the point of the exercise was.

At a special meeting last week, Township staff was asked by council to bring an interim control bylaw report for review at their meeting Monday.

Staff thought his would give the Township leverage to try and stop the building of the peaker plant, even if it’s only for a while.

Staff and Jay Feehely, the Township’s solicitor, are scheduled to meet with the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) Feb. 2 on the issue, where they will present the interim control bylaw. This meeting is also to determine if Pristine Power will be granted a licence to build.

Feehely said he was glad to see the Township go with the interim control bylaw, because it’s the only alternative. But this congratulation did not come without some possible bad news.

“Remember though, we could be turned down once we are in front of the OMB,” Feehely said.

Council also saw approval from members of the community.

Strachan Bowen commended council. “I am so happy to see council on board,” he said.

Several members of the public withdrew their planned deputations because they thought they had nothing to say, as long as council was doing everything it could to stop the plant.

Concerned Citizens of King Township (CCKT) Chair Debbie Schaefer congratulated council on the decision.

“Frankly, we were losing hope in whether or not council would step up to the challenge,” Schaefer commented.

“Also there are two very important reasons why council should do this,” she added. “Firstly, voters will remember how you acted on this and secondly, you will sleep much better knowing you have done all you could to stop it.”

King City area resident Harvey Tenenbaum also congratulated council, acknowledging the fortitude to go along with the interim control bylaw.

“Thank you council for going along with this,” Tenenbaum said.

But Jeff Myers, president and CEO of Pristine Power and York Energy Centre, said he was puzzled that the Township would have gone that far

He said they have spent some 16 months going over every issue with the municipality. “We don’t understand the purpose of the bylaw,” he said, commenting such bylaws are usually aimed at providing more time, but he wasn’t sure for what.

“It’s a pure political move,” he commented.

Julia Ciccaglione, vicepresident of environmental and sustainable development for Pristine, commented that the company has been very cooperative with the Township over the last 16 months. “I guess we see this as a move of bad faith from our perspective,” she remarked.

Myers added the Township will be spending a lot of money on legal fight, while he said the company’s lawyers have reported the bylaw is illegal under the Provincial Greenbelt legislation.

“We’re just surprised,” he sad. “There’s no logic to the the action, except it being political.”

He added this is a shovelready infrastructure project, with all the provincial approvals in place and the contractors ready to go.

Despite this latest action, Ciccaglione said she hoped they can keep working with the Township, getting through the more technical issues. She added they would encourage residents who support the project to speak up, as this project is really aimed at providing more stability in the Hydro grid. She said some opponents have been speaking about the conservation and renewable energy.

This project supports that, she maintained, adding it will smooth out peaks and valleys of intermittent energy.

“We're fully committed to this project,” Myers stated. “We’re fully invested in it.

He added infrastructure projects do run into delays.

“We’ll get through this,” he declared. “We’ll get it done.”

Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, has been involved with CCKT and Holland Marsh Growers’ Association in their fight against the plant. He praised council for passing the bylaw.

“It’s a great example of council listening to the residents and speaking out on a project with a location and logic which makes no sense,” Schreiner commented.

He hoped this would make the province re-examine projects and how they impact on municipalities.

“At the end of the day, there’s only one taxpayer,” he said.

Schreiner thought that while councillors were put into a difficult position by the whole process, they overcame this issue properly.

He also said if the interim control bylaw is denied, the Green Party will continue to stand in support of CCKT, Holland Marsh Growers’ Association and the Township in its fight.