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.

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.

John Laforet Giving a Deputation to Thunder Bay Council (Jamie Smith)

By Jamie Smith, tbnewswatch.com

By a majority decision, councillors Monday night avoided a multimillion dollar lawsuit by voting for a compromise with a wind developer.

Councillors voted 8-4 in favour of a compromise with Horizon Wind Inc., effectively ending the $126 million lawsuit the company levied against the city. The vote followed seven deputations during a committee of the whole meeting at city hall.

The potential 79 megawatt project on the Nor’ Wester mountains will be laid out in five phases. The first phase, called Beta, will generate a potential 16.5 megawatts of power through eight turbines, which are mainly southeast of Little Norway Road.

Decommissioning would be provided by the company at $20,000 per turbine after 16 years.

City solicitor Rosalie Evans said the deal also states the company cannot have permanent access to turbines through Loch Lomond Road until the company passed the province’s Renewable Energy Approvals.

“They would not actually build a road until, and unless, the project is approved by the province,” Evans said. “We would not have a road to nowhere.”

Until that time the company will use Little Norway Road to access the locations.
Mayor Keith Hobbs said he doesn’t feel comfortable because the deal leaves him with too many unanswered questions.

“It was the worst decision that has ever been made in this city,” Hobbs said. “I can’t see one mistake made compounded by another”.

The deal states one per cent, up to 15 acres, of the total trees can be cut. But that’s still devastating to an area the mayor considers a wonder of the world. Blasting, which requires a professional engineering study, will also ruin the area, he added.

“Green energy is not supposed to leave a footprint and this is leaving a major boot print,” Hobbs said. “You’re gonna blast the crap out of that mountain.”

Coun. Ken Boshcoff agreed that the deal was a bad one. Now that certain turbines are allowed to be 185.5 metres tall instead of the original 100 metres in Horizon’s REA, people are going to be upset. The councillor added that a potential increase to the number of turbines overall will also be uncomfortable to many residents. 

 ”I would think it’s a valid case for what they call righteous anger,” he said. “This city is going down a path that we will all regret.”

But Coun. Andrew Foulds said the city is facing a $126 million lawsuit. Even if it fought and only had to pay half of that, Thunder Bay couldn’t build new roads for five years to pay off the damages. While $20,000 per turbine might be low for some people, at least it’s something, he added.

“Perhaps it is lower than many people would like but it is better than nothing,” Foulds said.

Coun. Iain Angus, echoing Foulds’ statements, said he had to support the deal.
 
“Actually a fifth of that (lawsuit) would be what we paid for the hospital,” he said.
Angus added that council had plenty of opportunities to raise questions and concerns, and that he believed the topics discussed Monday night had been dealt with.

“I’m satisfied that we have all the information we need to make a decision,” Angus said.
Wind Concerns Ontario president John Laforet, one of seven opponents to make a deputation to the city, said council had to decide whether they were a municipality or a wind farm proponent.

The deal, Laforet believes, shows that Horizon can bully the city and get whatever they want. Laforet said the city was just avoiding one lawsuit before facing many more from residents.

“You’re setting yourselves up for a fight,” Laforet told council. “Residents don’t lose these fights.”

Mike Payne, a member of the Nor’Wester Mountain Escarpment Protection Committee said the committee is disappointed with council’s decision.

He said the committee will confer with their legal counsel about how to proceed, but couldn’t say whether the group plans to raise lawsuits against the city.

“But it’s definitely a possibility,” said Payne.

http://tbnewswatch.com/news/140095/Approved

John Laforet in Thunder Bay April 2011

 The leader of an anti-wind farm group wants City Council to change some of the clauses found in the proposed settlement with Horizon Wind.  John Laforet is the President of Wind Concerns Ontario and says council should hold off on voting on the settlement that would kill the 126 million dollar lawsuit.  Laforet thinks council needs to maintain control of the Loch Lomond road allowance; calling it the city’s only bargaining chip.

http://thegiantnews.blogspot.com/2011/04/wco-pays-visit-to-council.html

“The message to wind developers can’t be as simple as, “Just sue and we’ll roll over and play dead for you,” Laforet said in a release issued late Sunday. “Wind Concerns Ontario is gravely concerned about the precedent of the terms of settlement would set for the future of wind development in Thunder Bay and around Ontario. The public portion of this draft deal would deliver a significant blow to the property rights of wind project participants, citizen involvement in the decision-making process and the few rights municipalities have left in making these decisions.”

Laforet is hoping to meet informally with councillors before the vote, and will be holding a news conference at 5:45 p.m. at city hall. He was also in Thunder Bay last December, part of a province-wide tour.

‘The message to wind developers can’t be as simple as: “just sue us and we’ll roll over and play dead for you.” Laforet Said.

‘Wind Concerns Ontario is gravely concerned about the precedent the terms of settlement would set for the future of wind development in Thunder Bay, and around Ontario. The public portions of these draft deal would deliver a significant blow to the property rights of wind project participants, citizen involvement in the decision making process and the few rights municipalities have left in these decisions.’ Laforet said ‘While I recognize the City of Thunder Bay’s desire to settle this intimidating lawsuit brought against it by the Horizon Wind, I’m hopeful Councillors will recognize their responsibility to act with diligence and remember their duty is to citizens to do what is best for them and the City. Settling at any cost, with so little time to fully digest the impact certainly isn’t in the best interests of residents.”

Taking the first flight out of Toronto on Monday morning, John Laforet is hopeful he will be able to meet with a number of members of Council in addition to providing a formal deputation prior to the vote. He will also join the Nor’Wester Mountain Escarpment Protection Committee’s planned rally and Press Conference at City Hall prior to the meeting.

In December of 2010 John Laforet started Wind Concerns Ontario’s province wide tour in Thunder Bay during a two-day visit that involved meetings with local residents, elected officials, experts, a tour of the proposed development and a public meeting at the South Neebing Community Centre.

For more information contact:

John Laforet – President Wind Concerns Ontario

647 724 0600 john.laforet@laforet.ca

By John Miner – London Free Press

After losing one round in court to the McGuinty government, anti-wind-turbine activists can sniff political victory in the air.

The wind energy issue has turned red hot in rural areas and there are enough people angry to bring down Liberal candidates, said John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario.

“Wind is a far hotter issue on the local level than anything else. The government did it to themselves because they took away local control,” Laforet said on the weekend during a break at Wind Concerns annual meeting in London.

Formed as a coalition in October 2008 with 22 organizations, the group that opposes wind farms now has 57 members.

“Our members are in 35 counties. We think we can play a significant role through direct political action,” Laforet said.

Wind Concerns Ontario is calling for a moratorium on all industrial wind projects until a health study is completed on their impact.

Once that’s done, the coalition wants the McGuinty government to return authority for approving wind turbine development to municipalities, something it stripped in the Green Energy Act.

That was a political blunder, according to Laforet, who was a Liberal party member and former Liberal riding president.

“I resigned to fight them on this issue,” he said.

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has pledged to return control over wind farms to municipalities.

Laforet said the coalition hasn’t endorsed any political party and won’t until platforms have been released.

“We are in talks with the Green party, the NDP and the PCs,” he said.

The anti-wind-turbine activists lost a court challenge in March over how close wind turbines can be from homes.

The court ruled the Ontario government had followed the proper process when it decided the turbines could be 550 metres away.

That ruling may be appealed.

While wind-turbine opponents met Saturday, the Canadian government announced it was investing $117,000 in a start-up company in Middlesex that will build foundation bases for wind turbines and solar installations.

DrillTech Canada is expected to create eight full-time jobs in its first two years of operation.

E-mail john.miner@sunmedia.ca, or follow Johnatlfpress on Twitter.

By agreeing with our position, the government recognized all these ‘wind welfare’ special interests and industry representatives the government either funds or that receive money from special interests tied to the wind industry, just aren’t credible and can’t be relied on for reasonable, responsible advice. Simply put, the Government of Ontario acknowledged by backing down that all of those who irresponsibly convinced them they didn’t need to do science in the first place were wrong and not credible for setting policy going forward.

Is it any wonder then that groups like Environmental Defence found out about the announcement from a reporter – not the government? Frankly, if I were the Minister of Energy and had been receiving such bad, self interested, incomplete advice from an orgy of special interests who came together to become the “Green Energy Act Alliance” I wouldn’t want to talk to them either as I cleaned up their mess.

The fight on land continues and will be won there as well, because these same special interests who were anti science, anti democracy and pro corporate welfare offshore hold the same views on land and offered even worse bad advice there. We will continue to fight for those who are being harmed on land, to restore local democracy and end the bizarre notions put out by pro industrial wind special interests.

Wind energy isn’t green, it isn’t reliable and it shouldn’t be considered a genuine form of power production because it can’t stand on its own and virtually every form of power production in the grid today besides wind and large scale solar can and don’t need subsidies to do it.

Electric generation from wind dates back to 1887 and scientists have been saying since 1865, that wind is an admirable form of energy production and favourable to coal, but the matter of storage (reliability) needs to be sorted out if it is to be a viable alternative. This is a problem that has been worked on and studied for the last one hundred and forty years with no meaningful improvement. Instead, the game plan is to pay for the power even when we don’t need it at multiples of what it’s worth, to back up 100% of wind energy’s capacity with fossil fuels to make up for the dips and surges and build them dangerously close to people because it’s convenient. The jobs arguments are just lies. The economic impact of wind energy is absolutely negative because of the harm it does to real, private sector, unsubsidized honest work.

In short, instead of becoming a viable form of energy production, industrial wind is an expensive PR statement government’s make, that has nothing to do with generating clean energy – because wind turbines can’t on their own without fossil fuels burning in the background. The negative effects on people, the environment and economy are unconscionable and cannot be allowed to stand.

Those who push industrial wind can’t honestly claim they care about the environment. They support fossil fuel expansion, oppose environmental assessments, local democracy and refuse independent science on the impacts and benefits of the technology. They are mere puppets for someone’s profit – incidentally those who often fund their misinformation campaigns.

This has become a losing battle for the industrial wind industry and its special interest groups. It’s a battle we need to continue to fight, if our province is to have a bright future and citizens, not special interests and corporate welfare seekers are to control the destiny of our province.