Chatham-Kent Councillor David VanDamme wants to see the province bring the same support for natural gas access as it does for wind energy.
The North Kent Wind Project is the latest to get council backing and while VanDamme supports the initiative, he feels natural gas deserves greater attention.
"I think we're missing the mark a little bit," says VanDamme. "For the first time I'm starting to hear comments that we may have reached our saturation point [of wind turbines] and by working with the province to push hard for natural gas for this area, I think we'd be getting the bigger picture more correct."
The ward 3 councillor is confident the province will get the message from the municipality.
"I think we're very good at dialogue with this [provincial government]," says VanDamme. "We have a mayor that's able to effectively communicate with all levels of government and a lot of council members as well; I think we really need to be proactive in that."
VanDamme feels natural gas is an effective solution to complaints of high heating costs, but says better access requires provincial support.
