Don’t be mistaken by the name of the political party he represents: Ontario Green Party leader Mike Schreiner doesn’t support the province’s controversial Green Energy Act as it stands.

Schreiner – the face of a party known for its support of renewable energy projects – told rural Lambton County leaders Wednesday he’d like to see changes to the provincial approval process for industrial wind turbines.

Schreiner said Ontario municipalities should have the planning process for these projects be put back into their hands – something several rural Lambton politicians have been calling for during high-profile battles against industrial wind projects in their communities.

“When (former Ontario Premier Dalton) McGuinty took (the planning process) out of our hands, that was a real blow to municipalities,” Warwick Township Mayor Todd Case said.

“At the end of the day, there seems to be a disconnect between this [Ontario Liberal] government and rural municipalities.”

That sense of disconnect was heard repeatedly during more than an hour-long breakfast meeting held in Petrolia Wednesday.

Schreiner – who is in the middle of a tour through southwestern Ontario – paid a visit to the town as his last of three events in Lambton County over the last two days.

Case and St. Clair Township Mayor Steve Arnold participated in a breakfast meeting with Schreiner, along with Petrolia town councillors Grant Purdy and Liz Welsh. Representatives of the local health-care, agricultural and affordable housing sectors were also in attendance.

A representative of Waters Wells First briefly stopped by the meeting to provide Schreiner with information. The grassroots group has been raising concerns about the potential impact the construction of wind turbines is having on the quality of well water in Chatham-Kent and Lambton.

“At the very least, I think this is something the Ministry of the Environment should be investigating,” said Schreiner, who was planning to follow up with the group.

Elected officials used Wednesday’s meeting to touch upon a laundry list of issues, ranging from the protection of agricultural lands and water sources through to rural school closures and the hot-button topic of rising hydro prices.

Schreiner laid out the Green Party’s long-term plan to reduce the cost of energy. It calls for immediate price reductions for people who “need it the most” and an immediate lowering of rural distribution costs.

Over the long term, Schreiner said grants should be introduced to encourage the retrofitting of houses and businesses to find energy efficiencies.

Efforts should also be undertaken to stop Ontario’s energy oversupply, Schreiner noted, which could include the closure of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station and a move to Ontario purchasing hydropower from Quebec.

But first Schreiner continues to work on getting a seat in the Ontario legislature. If he was successful in his election bid in 2018, he’d be the first Ontario Green Party leader ever to do so.

Despite his current lack of a seat in the legislature, Schreiner said he’s been successful at Queen’s Park with championing causes, including campaign financing reforms.

“I think I could be more effective if we had Green MPs (in the legislature), but without seats, we’ve still been successful in championing issues,” he said following the meeting.

During his time in Lambton, Schreiner said he was “impressed” by the community’s emphasis on clean-tech job creation, as well as a new community health care project in Petrolia.

Schreiner was next headed to Windsor to collect and address more issues being raised by Ontarians.

He said the common concern he’s getting from the public is that “decisions are being made at the provincial level, not locally.”

“There’s a lot of material I can take back to Queen’s Park.”

bsimpson@postmedia.com