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Tag Archives: Cornerview Farms

Brinston not a test case, community not lab rats

08 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Brinston, Cornerview Farms, Dixon's Corners, Ed Schouten, FIT program, Leslie Disheau, Prowind, wind farm North Gower, wind farm Richmond, wind farms Ontario, wind power subsidies, wind turbines

You may recall that in last month’s edition of Farmers Forum, North Gower-Richmond farm owner Ed Schouten (the proponent in the North Gower wind power project) said he looked forward to the start-up on the project at Brinston, as it would serve as a “test case” for people who had doubts about how great wind power is.

Lots of letters flew in to the Editor, and we will reproduce them all. First though, the letter from Brinston resident Leslie Disheau who wants to put Mr Schouten straight on a few issues.

Brinston divided on wind turbines

Letter, Farmers Forum March 2014

I am going to begin with setting the record straight on the use of the term “wind farm.” This term is a skewed way of making the industrialization of farming practices more palatable to the general public by international wind development companies.

Farming practices and the farming industry have quietly moved into industrial practices while still enjoying the government subsidy/benefit programs to help sustain their bottom line, and keep their competitive edge with fluctuating world markets.

These healthy government subsidy/benefit programs are not available to any other sector of industry in Ontario. If you are going to industrialize then you should have to play by the same industry standards and requirements which currently govern all industry in Ontario.

Farm lands are now being used to host electricity producing machines, not growing food to feed cities. So let us term these industrial electricity projects correctly and allow this industry to be taxed accordingly, and without lucrative FIT contracts for 20 years.

We, the people in Brinston, Dixon’s Corners and Hulbert, directly affected by the siting of 10 30-megawatt industrial wind turbines, have every right to be upset and speak out. The Green Energy Act has stripped us of our rights to say “no” and our right to protect the well-being of our families; allowed for the devaluation of our homes; permits wildlife to be killed, harmed and harrassed; and takes top qality farmland out of food production. The rural community of Brinston is very much living with and feeling divided by this South Branch wind project.

“I am not a test animal, and my community is not a ‘test case,’ Mr Schouten”

I personally take great offence to Mr. Schouten’s comment that the “Brinston turbines will be a good test case for the rest of the area.” I am not a test animal. I am a person and my community should not be referred to as a “test case,” like a lab study.

As for Mr. Winslow’s statement about “negative publicity” and “far too much emotion,” I speak up with passion because I value my family’s health and well-being, take pride in my home and property, and understand what stewardship of the land and animals really means. I get emotional when someone makes a decision, without my consent, which directly changes life for my family and the community.

I have spent three years reading and looking at the research for both sides of this issue, from around the world, and can say I sit on the negative side of the fence–I made an educated decision to do so.

Leslie Disheau

Brinston, Ontario

The writer has one 3-MW turbine 836 meters from the front of her family home, and another 900 meters from the rear.The South Branch project, initiated by Germany-based Prowind,and purchased by US-based EDP, began operations March 4.

BrinstonTurbine BaseAerial shot of base for one of the Brinston turbines, prior to construction last year. Brinston is 30 minutes south of Ottawa, Ontario

 

North Gower farmer still wants turbines on his land

08 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Health, Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

community concerns wind power, Cornerview Farms, Ed Schouten, health effects wind farms, Not a Willing host, Prowind, wind farm noise, wind farm North Gower, wind farm Ottawa, wind farm Richmond

Here from the current edition of Farmers Forum, a story on the differing views of farm owners on having turbines on their property. One farmer interviewed reacted to the concerns of the community, the other persists in believing that community opposition is wrong.

Farmers face off over wind turbines

Wind farm at Brinston will be test case for others

 By Tom Collins

PETERBOROUGH — As 10 new wind turbines were to start spinning at Brinston — about an hour south of urban Ottawa — the tide of public opinion about wind farms is changing, pitting farmers against one another.

The Brinston wind farm has been controversial, so much so that South Dundas council has since passed a resolution that it will not support further turbines until it sees a need for it. Some wind power supporters have seen communities turn on them.

When M.K. Ince and Associates Ltd. decided to build five wind turbines in Cavan Monaghan Township near Peterborough, Don Winslow immediately jumped on board. In spring of 2013, he signed with the wind company to allow them to build a wind turbine on his 500-acre cash crop farm. Three months later, after immense public pressure and hostility, he told the company he couldn’t do it anymore.

“It relieved our stress tremendously (to cancel the contract),” said 70-year-old Winslow, who estimated that less than five per cent of the community is in favour of wind turbines. “We don’t have to sneak around the neighbours hoping to not run into them.

“There is always an element of society that is going to go overboard,” he said. “But people I respected were just as upset as the real radicals.”

Winslow is still a big believer in wind technology. But many Ontario municipalities are not. As of late January, 78 of 444 municipalities have declared themselves unwilling hosts of wind turbines — along with 33 concerned municipalities — despite the fact the designation has no teeth.

Five or six years ago, wind companies were offering farmers an agreement where they could earn $10,000 or more per year to allow a turbine to use up a half-acre of land. Now that price has almost doubled, Winslow said. A farmer signing an agreement today could make about $400,000 on a 20-year agreement.

Winslow said his neighbours were concerned about property values, health risks, and a flicker effect caused by shadows from rotating blades in the setting sun.

These wind turbine issues are still hotly debated. While the Ontario Superior Court of Justice said last April that wind turbines do reduce property values, many of the health issues have seen studies that support both sides of the argument. Health Canada has been studying the issue and expects to release the results this year.

Ed Schouten of North Gower: “I will host a couple…”

Ed Schouten has long wanted wind turbines on his dairy farm in North Gower. He doesn’t believe turbines are as much trouble as some make them out to be and would host a couple if a wind farm company decided to build in the area.

“I’m not afraid of them, let me put it that way,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to harm the farm. I never thought in my life people would be against this.”

Schouten thinks the Brinston turbines will be a good test case for the rest of the area. If wind farms are done right — like the one in Brinston — then no one will complain, he said. The trick is to keep the wind farm small. If there are a few turbines, they look nice, but if there are hundreds, they become an issue.

Winslow said the negativity in the news media has played a big role in people shifting away from wind turbines.

“You don’t hear much except for negative publicity,” he said. “It’s hard for the average citizen to take anything but the view they keep hearing over and over in the press. There’s far too much emotion into it now.”

……….

Editor’s note: despite Mr Schouten’s claim that keeping the “wind farm small” would avoid issues with the community, the truth is, the proposal for his property and one other that is now on hold, was for eight turbines that would have been the largest in North America, and would have affected more than 1,000 homes. As for “small,” the 20-megawatt wind power generation project would have cost the citizens of Ontario $4.8 million a year, had it achieved a Feed In Tariff contract, or $96 million over the life of the contract. Prowind of Germany, the company putting that proposal forward, told Ottawa Wind Concerns that it is reviewing the requirements of the new procurement process for for large renewable power projects, and will decide to apply. The result is, North Gower-Richmond remain in “limbo” for months to come.

 

The Wiggins decision: what it means for leaseholders (You’re about to get sued)

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Health, Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cornerview Farms, legal action wind farms, Ottawa wind concerns, property value loss North Gower, property value loss Richmond, Prowind, sue for property value loss, Wiggins decision, Wiggins et al, wind farms and property values, wind turbines and property values, WPD Canada

Last year, a group of property owners in the Collingwood area, decided to sue both the wind power developer (wpd, from Germany) and the landowners who, together, had put forward a proposal for a wind power generation project.

The landowners, led by a Mr and Mrs Wiggins, maintained that they had already suffered property value loss and that if the project was approved, those losses would continue and escalate. The Wiggins own an equestrian facility worth over $1.5 million and had listed it for sale; once the wind power project was announced, interest in the property evaporated.

The wind power developer asked the court to determine whether their action had any merit and asked for a summary judgement on the legal action.

Things didn’t go quite as planned.

Yes, the judge decided in her decision*, this is not the appropriate time to proceed with this action and it was denied. BUT, she said, if the project does receive approval from the government to proceed, THEN the plaintiffs were free to pursue their legal action.

While there was “no genuine issue for trial” at this time, she ruled, [Section 13], “It is possible however that they may be wronged by one or more of the defendants committing a tort in the future when and if the Fairview Wind Project is either given approval and/or constructed. [sic: it can’t be constructed without approval, but we digress] For that reason the claims are being dismissed without prejudice to the plaintiffs’ rights to advance the same and other claims in the future in relation to this venture. [Section 37]

The evidence showed, the judge said, that “they [the plaintiffs] have already suffered harm through loss in property values and the corresponding interference with the use and enjoyment of their properties.” [Section 9]

The judge also accepted evidence from Dr Robert McMurtry on the potential for negative health impacts.

What this means for the owners of properties neighbouring land where wind turbines have been proposed is that the minute a project is approved by the Ministry of the Environment, you can file a claim.

The leaseholders (i.e., people leasing land for turbines to a wind power developer) ought to be forewarned that claims will be filed in Ontario. In the North Gower-Richmond area, a conservative estimate of the property value loss within 3 km is $67 million. The wind power project is proposed by Germany-based Prowind for two area farms, Cornerview and Gowerdale. More than 300 homes are within 3 km of the project.

Contact us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com and please donate for our legal advice which helps us all at PO Box 3 North Gower ON  K0A 2T0

* Superior Court of Justice-Ontario, Case CV-12-0344 Wiggins et al vs WPD Canada and Beattie Brothers Farms Ltd

“Too close to homes…property values threatened”

27 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Health, Renewable energy, Wind power

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cornerview Farms, Feed In Tariff Ontario, FIT subsidy Ontario, Green Energy Act, Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen, property value loss wind power, property value wind farms, wind farm North Gower, wind farm Richmond, wind mills Greece, wind mills in Europe

An Ottawa-area reader wrote to the Ottawa Citizen, in response to a totally city-centric column by writer Kelly Egan, in which the columnist said he likes the Feed In tariff program because he thinks it helps small, local energy initiatives. So, so wrong.

If only the FIT program had done that, there actually would be jobs, there actually would be energy savings…but that’s not what happened—the subsidy program was created for the giant corporate wind power industry. The rooftop solar panels Mr Egan so likes to see from his “bedroom window” in the city have almost nothing to do with it. On the other hand, the people of rural and small urban communities will have their lives changed for ever by the advent of huge wind power generation projects. Here is the letter. Note how the writer also describes what he has seen in his European travels—what Ontario is doing is not like anything elsewhere.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/close+residences/8297595/story.html

Too close to residences

By Savas Adamantidis, Ottawa CitizenApril 26, 2013

Re: Tied to be FIT, like it or not, April 24.

Reading columnist Kelly Egan’s article on the touchy subject of wind turbines, I just felt sick to my stomach.

Having a residential property adjacent to a farm where an industrial wind turbine project is in the works makes me a stern opponent of this kind of project. It is costly, detrimental to health and a threat to the value of my property.

I invite Egan to switch places with me and watch his lifetime toils evaporate just for the sake of enriching powerful lobbies of already rich people.

It is a shame that our government insists on disturbing and ruining people’s lives by allowing such projects so close to residences. Our beautiful province is so vast and for sure this kind of project can be built in remote areas where people’s lives are not affected and the enrichment of the government’s friends can continue with us footing the bill.

I have visited many countries where wind turbine parks were nowhere close to any residences nor farms. Even in Greece where bribery can seemingly get you anything, such projects are built far away from inhabited areas.

I wonder what it took to convince our politicians that building them close to homes is good for everyone. I feel so powerless in a country like Canada where the person is valued – but it appears that our politicians do not adhere to this notion.

Savas Adamantidis, North Gower

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Donations welcome to help us with legal fees and other expenses. PO Box 3 North Gower ON  K0A 2T0

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