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Tag Archives: North Gower wind project

The Chiarelli-Wynne non-announcement for Ontario municipalities: nothing has changed

03 Monday Jun 2013

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

April Jeffs, Bob Chiarelli, cancel wind power projects, FIT contracts, health problems wind power projects, Kathleen Wynne, map Ontario wind turbines, municipal control wind power projects, national Post, North Gower wind farm, North Gower wind project, Ottawa wind concerns, Parker Gallant, Scott Stinson, Trillium Power, Wainfleet, Wind Concerns Ontario

Last week, Energy Minister and former Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli announced that Ontario would in future increase “local control” in renewable energy development. This was in reaction to the fact that in recent weeks, almost 40 municipalities took the step of formally passing a resolution to say they are NOT a “willing host” to wind power projects, picking up on remarks made months earlier by Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Mr Chiarelli announced that a new process will “replace the existing large project stream of Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program and better meet the needs of communities.”

A new “competitive procurement process for projects over 500 kW” will be announced in the fall.

What does it all mean?

Absolutely nothing.

In fact, things may even be worse for communities who don’t wish to expose their residents to the health impacts, property value loss, and social divisions that come along with large-scale wind power generation projects.

Note the wording: “meet the needs of communities.” What the province is saying it will now do is develop Regional Energy Plans and the new process will “require energy planners and developers to work directly with municipalities to identify appropriate locations and site requirements.”

We’re not sure who the “energy planners” are but take this scenario: a regional energy plan for Ottawa and area is developed and the province says there must be a mix of power sources. Therefore, a wind power project, and guess what? There’s already one in process in North Gower-Richmond*, or countless other communities across Ontario near large urban centres, so, carry on! And we know that siting wind power projects has NOTHING to do with health or the environment and everything to do with a few willing landowners.

And the Liberal government’s continuing policy of forcing wind power projects on rural and small urban communities.

Premier Wynne confirmed this in an interview last Friday when she said Ontario is continuing its goal of securing the province’s clean energy future, and that siting decisions will be made for the “greater good.”

That means, too bad for you North Gower and Richmond. Hundreds of families, young children, people with existing health problems, young families with everything invested in their homes suddenly forced to live with a power project? Too bad for you: it’s for the “greater good.”

This announcement was the Ontario government at its most cynical.

Scott Stinson wrote in The National Post, referring to the government’s earlier decision to pay power developers even if we don’t need the power: “So now Ontario will pay wind generators for energy that it isn’t even using, produced by turbines in communities that didn’t want them, and were installed under a set of rules that it has since admitted was a mistake.” http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/06/02/scott-stinson-rural-communities-not-blow-away-by-changes-to-ontarios-green-energy-act/

Wainfleet Mayor April Jeffs today wrote a letter to Premier Wynne on behalf of the 20 some municipalities that met earlier this year and formed a working group. While Mr Chiarelli claims that the province is unable to cancel, or not proceed on, projects with FIT contracts, Mayor Jeffs reminds him that this is not true: “the recent court decision in the lawsuit brought by Trillium Power indicated that this concern does not apply to projects that have not received REA approvals. FIT contract holders have only been granted permission to enter a ‘complex regulatory process’ that might lead to approval to build a wind project. A FIT contract is not a guarantee of a REA approval.”

In other words, with all due respect, Minister, you are lying.

For more on this we invite you to read Parker Gallant’s excellent column at Wind Concerns Ontario, The truth, whole truth, so help me Ontario. http://freewco.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-truth-whole-truth-so-help-me-ontario.html

Contact us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com 

Middlesex-Lambton, Listowel, Prince Edward County, Haldimand, West Lincoln, Bluewater, Kincardine, Collingwood… for a list of wind power projects pending go to ontario-wind-turbines.org

Ottawa Wind Concerns chair awarded Jubilee medal

23 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by ottawawindconcerns in Health, Ottawa, Wind power

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

health effects wind farms, health effects wind turbine noise, North Gower wind project, Ottawa wind project, Pierre Poilievre, Queen's Jubilee Medal, Wind Concerns Ontario, wind farm North Gower, wind farm Ottawa, wind farm petition, wind farm Richmond

Member of Parliament for Nepean-Carleton Pierre Poilievre gave Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals to four community members  last evening. The MP said that too often, politics and media concentrate on urban life when he said, the rural communities are in many ways the backbone of Canada.

One of the awards went to Ottawa Wind Concerns chair Jane Wilson, who is also the president of Wind Concerns Ontario.

Mr Poilievre said in specific that the award was to acknowledge advocacy work to protect the health and safety of people living near industrial-scale wind power projects.

Several months ago, Mr Poilievre launched a petition to be taken to the House of Commons to ask for a halt to the Ottawa wind power project based in North Gower-Richmond, to wait until the results of health impact studies are available. (The petition is still availble for signing–contact us, or drop into the MP’s office at 250 Greenbank.)

He also commissioned an economic review of the project by the Library of Parliament, which found that the cost to taxpayers in Ontario for the power project would be $4.8 million, per year.

We are going to fight ON. And ON. It is not fair that an entire community should be affected by the decision of a few landowners to put profits before their community.

To donate–we need funds for ongoing legal advice–please send a cheque to PO Box 3 North Gower ON   K0A 2T0. To have your name added to our (confidential) email list, email us at ottawawindconcerns@yahoo.ca

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