Great Rally and March in Port Dover Today!
It was a blast to be back in Haldimand-Norfolk today as we held a BBQ, rally and march at Silver Lake with the help of the local Lions Club. Many thanks to the event organizers at Haldimand Wind Concerns, MPP Toby Barrett who came out, and the hundreds of people who joined us as well for what was a lovely afternoon.
I`d also like to thank the OPP for doing the responsible thing and sending a number of officers to ensure everyone`s safety by blocking intersections as demonstrators marched by. We had a great turn out and a procession that was about half the length of the main drag in Port Dover.
As always the folks the fighting to protect Haldimand-Norfolk did an amazing job, and I was proud to be there with folks from all over these two counties, some living with wind turbines, others facing the threat of industrial wind development.
We were well received by residents and visitors in Port Dover, with many people honking in support of chants like `Oust McGuinty now` `Health studies first` and others.
Norfolk county knows all too well the negative impacts industrial wind development has on communities as clearly seen in Clear Creek near Long Point where a number of families have been forced from their homes. Haldimand and Norfolk face very real threats going forward, but together through continued activism and pressure I am certain we will be able to protect this very special part of Ontario.
Toby Barrett brought a very clear message about the PCs intention to the crowd which the crowd responded quite enthusiastically too. His strength on this issue has been a very positive influence for members of his community and something that is very appreciated locally. I think as many of his signs as ours left with people at the end of the afternoon.
Tomorrow it is off to Brant to help the local candidate there with motivated volunteers who want to see the government change in just 39 days.
It is an honour to be on the road again, visiting our friends and allies around the province on the `Winds of Change`tour for Wind Concerns Ontario.
3 Comments »“Wind Concerns Ontario’s Winds of Change Tour Launched in Owen Sound”
Wind Concerns Ontario has successfully launched the latest province-wide organizing effort of 2011, this time with a strong election focus. Over the next forty or so days, Wind Concerns Ontario members in sixty seven ridings will be mobilized to actively work to defeat Liberal incumbents, and candidates in their respective ridings. I look forward to personally visiting over two dozen ridings to hold rallies, canvas blitzes and other events.
We pulled out of Toronto last night around midnight and didn’t roll into Owen Sound until 3am. I was pleased to visit the AM 560 CFOS studio again at 9am to talk with Manny Paiva about the problems with Dalton McGuinty’s industrial wind schemes. By 10:30am over fifty members of Wind Concerns Ontario groups from around Bruce-Grey Owen Sound had come to the pavilion at the very beautiful Harrison Park to formally launch Winds of Change, talk about the importance of the coming election and the need to elect good MPPs who will represent rural Ontario.
Although Bill Walker was unable to attend in person, he was kind enough to send a statement to be read on his behalf to the folks who were present and it was very well received. To make it clear that Wind Concerns Ontario means business about doing its part to ensure winds of change help blow the McGuinty Liberals from Queen’s Park, many of those who came for the morning went for a canvas after lunch.
I had a couple of other interviews about the Winds of Change tour, followed by a quiet afternoon to catch up on Wind Concerns Ontario stuff.
Tomorrow Bob Rae is going to be in Owen Sound, so we’ve decided to attend his event because as a former Federal Liberal Riding President, who did not vote Liberal for the first time federally in the last election, I’m curious how he can reconcile his desire to rebuild the Federal Liberals in rural Ontario, and support the re-election of Dalton McGuinty, whose government has ended local democracy, destroyed property values, harmed human health and the environment while selling out rural Ontario largely to Ontario Liberal Party donors and industrial wind welfare recipients.
If I get the chance to ask Rae, I will be sure to share how that goes.
The Chronicle Journal: It’s Not Over Yet In Thunder Bay
“Houses in South Neebing — going cheap,” Anna Marchese said Monday evening while leaving city hall moments after Thunder Bay council approved an agreement with Horizon Wind to avoid a $126-million lawsuit. Marchese was one of several people who confronted councillors after the meeting to express their displeasure with the decision and the way they feel they have been treated by the city.
The decision allows Horizon to put two of four wind turbines on the edge of the Nor’Wester Mountain escarpment. The other two must be moved back from the edge. The city was slapped with the suit after council voted to have all four turbines moved back.
After Monday’s meeting, Nor’Wester Mountain escarpment protection committee co-chairman Mike Payne said he believes the city looked at who had a better chance of winning a lawsuit: Horizon Wind or local citizens. The problem, he said, is “the city hired a law firm that represents wind developers and a consultant that works for wind developers. They have pro wind people giving them the legal opinion of what they should do,” Payne said.
Only four councillors voted against the settlement on Monday, including Mayor Keith Hobbs, who called the escarpment one of the wonders of the world. “You’re going to blast the crap out of that mountain range and we’re getting nothing out of it,” Hobbs said. “The costs to upgrade the grid will outweigh any profits we’ll get from it. This is not the kind of city I want to live in,” he said to applause from others who spoke against the project Monday.
John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, addressed the eight councillors who were in the room when he spoke. Laforet, of Toronto, said the city is proposing a one-sided agreement that benefits Horizon more than Thunder Bay. He said the city might be able to get out of the agreement, citing a 2000 Supreme Court decision that Victoria, B.C.’s council wasn’t bound by the previous council’s decisions. “When your solicitor starts talking about future phases — if those are going past 2014, that is a direct violation of what is already a Supreme Court precedent. “You’re trying to get out of one lawsuit and you’re setting yourself up for another one,” Laforet said, adding, along with Hobbs, that council should take more time to make a decision.
“We have had many hours of meetings and we’ve met with the public,’’ said Coun. Rebecca Johnson. “We’re now at the point of asking the same questions over and over again. “At some point we owe Horizon and this community an answer,’’ said Johnson.
Coun. Andrew Foulds agreed. He said if the city had to pay out even $50 million, that’s the amount spent on building roads over five years. “I think administration has worked very hard in trying to bring us a deal in the face of the $126-million lawsuit,’’ said Foulds.
“If we stood and fought we could be liable for even half of that, which means we don’t build roads for five years. That’s not the kind of risk I want to take on as a municipality,” he said.
Payne said the Nor’Wester protection committee members plan to speak with their lawyers about possible legal action against the City of Thunder Bay. He said he’s hoping that Horizon can’t begin the project until after the October provincial election, and that the Progressive Conservatives, who have said say they will put a moratorium on wind projects that haven’t started, form the government. “Residents in South Neebing will vote PC because they want this project to stop,” Payne said.
The residents also plan to fight the province. “We’re geared up to fight the renewable energy approval,’’ said Payne. “We found well over 200 errors, emissions and inconsistencies in (Horizon’s submissions to the province).”
http://www.chroniclejournal.com/content/news/local/2011/04/05/it%E2%80%99s-not-over-yet
