Posts Tagged ‘Dalton McGuinty’
The ‘Truth about Turbines Tour’ Begins Next Week in Thunder Bay
As always, I am looking forward to going back to Thunder Bay to stand with the folks who volunteer countless hours with the Nor’Wester Mountain Escarpment Protection Committee (NMEPC) as they oppose Horizon Wind’s plans to clear cut and blast watershed protection lands to install industrial wind turbines. These turbines would tower 1200 feet over the community, when the height of the turbines and the escarpment are factored in and are irresponsibly close to humans.
The environmental devastation required to build this project is something not seen in southern Ontario and is something that I can only describe as shocking. Having seen the results of clear cutting and blasting for industrial wind development underway in Dorion Ontario near the Ouimet Canyon, and being able to visit the proposed site for Horizon’s project, I see no responsible way anyone can argue any environmental benefit with this kind of development. Each turbine site requires the clearing of a full hectare of land. In Dorion, the developer used something like four hundred dynamite blast caps per turbine location. Under Horizon’s plan they will clear cut and blast 150 acres of pristine, untouched, until now protected escarpment under a deal that will see the City and ratepayers financially hosed for the privilege of enabling all of this (as the land owner) to happen.
The Green Energy Act has gutted the environmental planning process, and fails to recognize the genuine environmental uniqueness and significance in the North that is threatned by irresponsible developers who intend on bullying their way through the process and blasting their way through the environment.
I’m really happy to be heading back to Thunder Bay to lend my voice and the support of Wind Concerns Ontario to resident’s fight up there. It will be my third trip up since December 2010 and the start of Wind Concerns Ontario spring tour titled the ‘Truth about Turbines Tour’. It’s an ambitious project that will see events, meetings, marches and rallies throughout Ontario to raise awareness and organize opposition to this government’s industrial wind energy proposals. Wind Concerns Ontario can only do these kinds of things because of the thousands of volunteers on the ground in communities all over our province. It’s their strength and support that makes this all happen and it’s something not even the best industry strategy can defeat.
As the election approachs, its becoming clearer and clearer that should the Liberals choose not to back down, they will lose a number of seats on this issue as concerned citizens take political action in defense of their homes. I continue to be amazed by the lengths folks will go to stand up for what they know is right and am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from, meet and work with such an amazing range and diversity of people from all over our province.
Spending forty-four days on the road, travelling six-thousand kilometres, visiting thirty six communities, in sixteen Liberal, eight PC and one NDP riding is not how I intended to spend part of May and most of June, but is something I think is important, because of the hard work so many are doing to stand up for their communities. I look forward to doing my part to help, and to lay the ground work to defeat this government in the fall, should they decide to force a de facto referendum on this issue through their candidates.
No Comments »London Free Press: The anger is blowin’ in the wind
Wind turbines: A protest in Strathroy on Saturday is a taste of things to come in the fall provincial election
By RANDY RICHMOND THE LONDON FREE PRESS
Grey-haired, 81-year-old Stephana Johnston is the kind of person to give the provincial Liberals fits when she waits outside Dalton McGuinty’s campaign bus this fall.
Leaning against her walker, she looks frail — except when she starts talking about wind power.
“We are suffering and it is a horror story and you are responsible because you agreed to the Green Energy Act,” Johnston tells Lambton-Kent-Middlesex Liberal MPP Maria Van Bommel.
With the next Ontario election only five months away, wind energy and the Green Energy Act is on track to become a huge issue of the campaign.
Johnston says she had to move from her home on the north shore of Lake Erie near Long Point after nearby wind turbines started interrupting her sleep.
“There are some nights when I wake up and just everything inside me is quivering. It has compromised my immune system. I am going everywhere I can go to prevent what has happened to us,” she vows.
Slowed by her walker but energized by her anger, Johnston still marched down the main street of Strathroy Saturday with about 80 others to protest wind turbines.
The peaceful protest march erupted into a raucous, hour-long confrontation with Van Bommel.
Van Bommel could barely finish a sentence without being shouted down by furious protesters who demanded she support a moratorium on turbines until research proves they are safe.
At times she had to stop and simply take the barrage of insults from protesters, some in tears and some claiming she betrayed their friendship.
“Imagine when (McGuinty’s) bus is met 28 days straight with crowds like that in Strathroy,” says John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario.
Urban dwellers and political analysts are underestimating the anger in rural and small town Ontario over wind turbines, he says. “This is the fight for the life and death of rural life. There is a huge anger out there and I think it is going to get worse.”
For wind energy opponents, the stakes are high. “This is our only shot,” Laforet says.
Wind Concerns — a coalition of 57 groups — will likely endorse either parties or individual candidates and encourage rural residents unhappy with McGuinty to work on getting him ousted.
Eighty municipalities representing two million people have called for a moratorium on wind farms, Laforet adds.
“There a lot of people looking for something to do. Direct political action is the most effective thing a resident of Ontario with concerns about wind can do.”
Hundreds of wind turbines have been installed or proposed in many areas of Southwestern Ontario, a 10-riding region dominated by McGuinty’s Liberals.
Opponents say turbines emit low-pitched sounds that disrupt the body’s rhythms and cause headaches, tinnitus, dizziness, nausea, rapid heart rate irritability and concentration problems.
Proponents say there is no proof of ill effects and turbines are better for the environment and personal health than the coal-fired generating plants they are supposed to replace.
“It’s a very emotional issue and I think we have to recognize that,” Van Bommel said Saturday after the protest. “There are many things that are going to be election issues in rural Ontario. I‘m sure the Green Energy Act will be uppermost in many people’s minds.”
randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca
Twitter.com/RandyRatLFPress
No Comments »London Free Press: Anti-Wind Turbine Activists Take Aim at Ballot Boxes
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.
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