Posts Tagged ‘Toronto Hydro Wind Farm’
Toronto Observer: New Scarborough Councillor Opposes Wind Turbine Project
Toronto Observer: New Scarborough Councillor Opposes Wind Turbine Project
Cole Carruthers, Kyle Larkin
Published 24 January 2011
Newly elected Coun. Gary Crawford hopes that the proposed wind turbine project in his ward will amount to nothing but hot air – and his opinion is making him popular with local environmental groups.
The Ward 36 representative’s says the turbines high pricetag far outweigh any benefits.
“I am completely against it, they just don’t make sense at an economic level. The cost is too much,” Crawford said Tuesday.
Local protest group Save the Bluffs state on their website that consumers pay an average of 2.5 times more for power generated from wind turbines than normal system prices.
The group also claims wind turbines erected too close to residential areas can affect the health of nearby residents.
But moving the turbines further out can drive the cost even higher, Crawford said.
“It’s more economically feasible to have them closer to shore,” he said. “The cost increases the farther away you place them, it becomes directly high.”
Toronto Hydro wants to erect the wind turbines on the shores of Ward 36. The ongoing debate is whether enough research has been done into the long-term effects of the turbines.
Local environmental groups worry that there could be negative environmental effects on the land in addition to potential health issues for the community.
John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, a coalition of dozens of anti-wind turbine groups from across the province, welcomes Crawford’s take on the matter.
“It’s important that he is against it, it’s a city project and if they’re not happy with it the city can tell Toronto Hydro there is no project,” Laforet said.
Michelle Mears, office manager for Bluffer’s Park Marina hasn’t heard any of the residents complain about the turbine project.
“The people who are against the proposal are the advocates from Guildwood, the residents from the marina are not too concerned to my knowledge,” she said.
2 Comments »Globe and Mail: Scarborough Bluffs residents determined to fight wind turbine project
Some key points about the motion discussed in the article below:
Councillor Ainslie voted for Toronto’s renewable energy targets even though Toronto Hydro said advised Council could only be met with offshore wind. He moved a motion of support for the Green Energy Act even though Dalton McGuinty and George Smitherman cited Scarborough Bluffs residents opposition to Toronto Hydro as the reason to take away citizens rights. I am the only candidate who fought them on their attacks then, and the reason why George Smitherman has attempted to apologize three times for his abusive comments that Ainslie seems to have condoned.
Paul Ainslie’s motion amounts to nothing more than a political deathbed conversion brought on by the fact that Guildwood residents are sick of not being represented and are overwhelmingly supporting my campaign to replace him and stop this project. They are also pretty open about this with him from what I understand.
The City of Toronto owns Toronto Hydro and could instruct them to stop tomorrow. Instead of trying that avenue, Paul Ainslie is literally copying and pasting a motion passed by Clearview Ontario that the Minister of Energy has already stated would have no impact on anything. Ainslie has said for over a year this is a provincial issue (yet he voted to support the City and Toronto Hydro moving forward with the research in December 2009). Folks, Toronto Hydro’s project is municipal as it gets. We own this issue as a City.
We need a Councillor who will address the real issue which is the City of Toronto’s ownership of Toronto Hydro and therefore this Council’s ability to stop the project regardless of what the Green Energy Act, the Minister of Energy or Dalton McGuinty think. Having a Councillor who voted for targets that can only be met with this project going forward and moved a motion of support for the Green Energy Act, praising the City and Toronto Hydro for their expertise in developing renewable energy projects isn’t going to be a winning strategy if we’re serious about stopping this project.
My position: ‘I’d fight like hell to kill the project.’
Paul Ainslie’s position: ‘I’m scared to death, so I’m going to look like I’m trying and hope my electoral defeat can be postponed.’
Residents need action, not excuses. We need success, not failure.
This project must be stopped and I am the only candidate that is serious about doing that.
Keep our message alive. Give us the tools to succeed. Click donate to do what you can to help or visit the ‘Contact’ page to get involved in taking back our community’s seat on Council.
Below is the text from the Globe’s article.
Globe and Mail: Scarborough Bluffs residents determined to fight wind turbine project
Anna Mehler Paperny
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Apr. 16, 2010 11:40PM EDT
Last updated on Friday, Apr. 16, 2010 11:42PM EDT
It’s an ongoing battle worthy of Cervantes, if he’d been an eco-minded urban planner: A furious group of residents, tilting at a hypothetical windmill.
The proposed turbine project, which would set up windmills in Lake Ontario off the Scarborough Bluffs, would be one of the province’s first forays into offshore wind power. Studies into whether such a project is even feasible are still in the nascent stage. It will take at least two years before Toronto Hydro knows whether there’s enough wind to make it work, and provincial regulations governing such a proposition are a ways off.
But the Don Quixotes of the Scarborough Bluffs are dead set against the suggestion. And their vocal opposition is putting local politicians on notice.
A motion going before Monday’s executive committee, put forward by two local councillors, proposes to ask the province for a blanket moratorium on wind-power development in Ontario. Even if the motion does make its way through council, it will have little impact, but it’s symbolic of the sway local opposition can have on such a project.
As Toronto commits to sourcing a quarter of its energy from renewable sources and the Ontario government commits billions of dollars to green-energy projects across the province, local opposition to backyard energy generation is something with which next year’s council will have to contend.
Already in the Guildwood community’s case, the turbine spat has galvanized candidates challenging incumbent councillor Paul Ainslie, arguing he hasn’t been vocal enough in his opposition. Mayoral candidates are being told in no uncertain terms that if they hope to pursue projects like these, they’ll have to find a way to work with angry residents.
Mr. Ainslie, the Scarborough East councillor who put forward Monday’s motion along with Scarborough Southwest councillor Brian Ashton, says he was motivated to do so out of concern for a precious part of the Toronto waterfront and fear that residents’ concerns are being ignored.
“People have a lot of concerns and people want to be listened to,” he said. “We’re asking for a moratorium because there’s health concerns, there’s real estate issues with property values and there’s a lot of things that are unanswered.”
The wind turbine issue is making Mr. Ainslie political enemies in his own ward: It’s the reason John LaForet is gunning for Mr. Ainslie’s council seat in October. “I’d fight like hell to kill the project,” he says.
Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid said even if the city’s executive committee passes the motion, it won’t change anything. If the project is deemed feasible and meets whatever provincial rules are put in place, it will likely go forward.
“There’s an 80-fold increase in wind turbines happening across Ontario – it is going to be something that’s going to be part of our landscape,” he said. “I think it would be a little bit hypocritical for Toronto, given its efforts to try to portray itself as a green city, to support this resolution. But that’s something that council will have to deal with. We’re determined to move forward with building green energy.”
Mayor David Miller, who has championed the city’s push towards renewable power, said opposition to the Scarborough Bluffs turbine is the exception, rather than the rule.
“The vast bulk of the green projects we’re doing are not only not controversial, they’re overwhelmingly embraced by people.”
It would be “tragic” if fear of angering residents prevented the city’s politicians from pursuing much-needed renewable energy initiatives, said York University environmental studies professor Mark Winfield.
“I think the potential is enormous and the benefits are enormous,” he said. “The biggest danger in some ways … is, frankly, the derailment of some of these efforts.”
No Comments »NATIONAL POST: Wind farm foes have lawn signs stolen
I was disgusted to hear that someone was low enough to steal lawn signs from Guildwood residents who are opposing Toronto Hydro’s proposal. The National Post wrote the following piece on the incident. Guildwood residents have also reported the thefts to the police and are hopeful that through increased evening patrols our freedom of speech will be protected from the intolerant eco-bully vandals that saw fit to steal residents signs.
Wind farm foes have lawn signs stolen
Guildwood Village
Meghan Housley, National Post Published: Saturday, March 20, 2010
Residents of Guildwood Village along the Scarborough Bluffs have no idea who is stealing their signs.
The residents have been using 12-by-24-inch lawn signs reading “Save our Shoreline” to voice their opposition to the planned windmill farm two kilometres off the Bluffs. According to John Laforet, who lives in the Guildwood neighbourhood, at least 40 signs have vanished in the middle of the night. Mr. Laforet said the Toronto Wind Action group has not had any luck in convincing the city, the province and Toronto Hydro that a wind farm would harm the community.
“We’ve been very aggressively fighting the city on it,” he said. “But we have no idea who would actually go to this length to co-ordinate taking down signs going street by street overnight.”
On South Marine Drive, where signs were up in front of a third of all the houses on the street, only a couple are left standing.
Mr. Laforet said Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Green Energy Act was designed to take away the rights of such communities as Guildwood to oppose these projects. “Instead of having an informed discussion about the pros and cons, we have been stripped of our rights to oppose. We have some real concerns about potential environmental damage done through the construction, and real concerns about whether Toronto Hydro’s even in a position to borrow the billion dollars that it’s going to take the build it.”
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