Toronto Sun: Wind turbine plan blows in controversy
I personally don’t understand why Councillor Ainslie and Ashton decided to introduce a motion and allow it to be considered by a committee where they had not lined up the votes or even had votes of their own. The result was a devastating amendment that not only gutted the motion, but flipped it into a pro industrial wind turbine statement on points that both Councillor Ainslie and Ashton had already voted to support (the anemometer and putting industrial turbines in the lake). It passed unanimously, spelling disaster for residents. Our community is now working from further back than we were before this motion was introduced. We need to come together to stop this project now. Reclaiming our seat on Council will be an important part of the fight. – John Laforet
Text of Toronto Sun piece below:
Wind turbine plan blows in controversy
By JONATHAN JENKINS, QUEEN’S PARK BUREAU
Wind turbines off the Scarborough Bluffs could kill birds, foul the water, wreck the waterfront and damage human health, a stream of concerned residents told city council’s executive committee Monday.
“There is nowhere in the world that you can build turbines so close to shore,” said John LaForet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario.
“There are real risks here to human health and there are real risks to the health of the lake,” added LaForet, a council candidate for Ward 43.
LaForet and other anti-wind proponents were speaking in support of a motion at executive committee calling for a moratorium on wind development across the province, put forward by Scarborough area councillors Paul Ainslie — the incumbent in Ward 43 — and Brian Ashton.
“A persistent and growing number of Ontarians have expressed serious and numerous concerns regarding the impacts of industrial wind turbines on their health, lifestyle, the operation of their businesses and on their property values,” the motion reads, in part.
But while the motion called for the city to press the province to slow down on such projects, it was clear the specific project sparking worries was Toronto Hydro’s plan to test wind speeds off the bluffs for the next two years. Members of the influential executive committee voted to refer the motion for more study, effectively killing it.
If wind speeds are sufficient, Hydro would like to build up to 60, 140-metre tall turbines about two kilometres offshore and generate power — a plan Ashton called a “hideous destruction of a beautiful pristine feature.”
Harry Spindel, vice-president of the Guildwood Community Association, called it a David and Goliath battle between residents and Hydro, with the province’s Green Energy Act effectively squelching local concerns.
“We may well destroy the lakefront environment and our health,” he said. “No matter how you look at it it’s a bad deal for Toronto, not just those who have to look at those industrial giants.”
But the litany of ill effects attributed to the construction of wind turbines was hotly disputed by scientists and environmental advocates who said clean, renewable wind power was the best answer to fighting climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“The science does not show adverse health impacts,” said Dr. Gideon Forman, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
Executive committee member Glenn De Baeremaeker, an ardent supporter of wind power, dismissed health concerns, saying: “The health fears are just that — fears. They don’t exist.”
Tags: Ainslie Motion, Executive Committee Wind Moratorium, John Laforet Candidate, John Laforet Ward 43, John Laforet Wind Concerns Ontario, Paul Ainslie Motion, Paul Ainslie Motion to Council, Toronto Hydro Anemometer
