After watching jobs vanish and saw mills close down amid the province's troubled forest industry, the mayor of the small northeastern B.C. town of Chetwynd sees hope in the wind.

Evan Saugstad believes his community is poised to be at the front of B.C.'s newest industry: wind power.

"Mostly in the construction area there are a lot of jobs," Saugstad from the town of about 3,100 people nestled in foothills more than 1,000 kilometres north of Vancouver.

"The jobs that will remain after construction are high-paying jobs, and they're jobs that are pretty much guaranteed for 20 years. Because of where we're situated, Chetwynd does have the potential to be an operation centre for many of these projects."

When the 50-turbine Dokie wind farm just outside Chetwynd is up and running next year, it will be B.C.'s first commercial wind power project, making the province the last in Canada to have such a power project.

A farm near Dawson Creek, B.C., called the Bear Mountain project is also scheduled to start generating power next year, and there are many other prospective sites being considered.

Slow to start

But B.C. has been slower than most provinces to embrace wind energy.

Dozens of wind farms have already sprouted up in places like Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and many provinces have set ambitious targets for wind power.

The federal government has been pouring millions of dollars into wind projects through its ecoEnergy program, with a goal to support 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2011.

While the Dokie and Bear Mountain wind farms will generate almost 300 megawatts of power between them, existing projects and signed contracts in Quebec, for example, account for about 3,500 megawatts, according to the Canadian Wind Energy Association.

"B.C. is a little late coming into the game," says the association's president, Robert Hornung.

Economic catch up?

One of the reasons B.C. is playing catch-up is economics.

Hornung says unlike other provinces that have been looking for alternative energy to combat rising coal and oil prices, B.C. has long had access to relatively inexpensive hydroelectricity.

But he says that's changing as wind technology becomes cheaper and there are fewer places to set up low-cost run-of-the-river hydroelectric stations.

And recent interest in B.C. has also been driven by the province's public energy utility, B.C. Hydro, which will be accepting proposals next month for a total of 5,000 gigawatt hours per year of clean energy, a significant portion of which is expected to include wind projects.

"Wind is more competitive within that context, which is why we're confident that wind will play a bigger role going forward," he says.

"We expect a very strong response from the wind industry."

Resident fears

As the turbines begin to dot B.C.'s diverse terrain, some residents are worried about what life will be like living next to towering wind mills.

Similar debates have played out in other parts of Canada, notably in Ontario and the Maritimes, where complaints range from noise and esthetics to fears of ice flying off turbine blades and claims of unproven health problems.

People have complained to Chetwynd area politicians about how a wind energy boom will affect the environment and their rural lifestyle.

Crab fishermen in Prince Rupert, B.C., have been speaking out about the NaiKun offshore wind farm proposed for the Hecate Strait, which they say could encroach on their crabbing territory.

And a group of homeowners near Bear Mountain has been rallying against the project there, insisting the wind farm will be too close to people.

The president of Aeolis Wind Power Corp., one of the companies behind the Bear Mountain farm near Dawson Creek, says his company has been working hard to address such concerns, and he says the majority of residents are in favour of the project.

"By and large, the biggest issue is lack of understanding and fear," says Juergen Puetter, whose company plans to submit two more proposals to B.C. Hydro next month.

Puetter says Aeolis has been working with local residents and made a number of changes to the Bear Mountain project after public hearings, such as moving the locations of turbines and eliminating some from the plan completely.

But Puetter acknowledges that there's only so much he can do to convince people who've made up their minds.

"I don't want to say everybody is going to become a fan of wind. You may like or not like the view of a turbine -- there's no right or wrong answer," says Puetter.

"You can't hide them. They've got to be in windy spots, windy spots are exposed, you'll see them."