County News
‘Reprehensible’
‘Reprehensible”
Reaction pours in over decision to approve Ostrander Point industry wind factory
Reaction has been swift and furious to the announcement that Ontario’s Ministry of Environment approved the development of a nine-turbine industrial wind factory on Crown Land at Ostrander Point in South Marysburgh.
In approving this project the Ministry has decided to allow the developer Gilead Power to kill, harm, and harass two endangered species (Blanding’s Turtle and Whippoorwill) which inhabit the piece of property
Nature Canada issued a statement saying it is dismayed by Minister Bradley’s decision to approve a wind energy project on publicly owned Crown land within one of the most significant areas of bird and bat migration in Ontario.
“Ostrander Point is in the heart of the globally significant Prince Edward County South Shore Important Bird Area, and is well-known for its significance to migrating and breeding birds,” said Ted Cheskey, bird conservation manager for Nature Canada. “A wind energy plant at this location poses a high and permanent risk to birds and other animals, plant life, animal life and the natural environment. It is particularly shocking that an announcement of this significance would be made as Ontarians turn their attention to family and friends for the holidays. The public now has 15 days during this holiday period to submit a formal request for appeal.
MPP Todd Smith calls the ministry of environment “a disgrace”.
“This is the second year in a row that the Ministry has tried to silence public comment on this project by making sure that it coincided with the holiday season. That kind of behaviour is unacceptable, it’s unprofessional and it makes a disgrace of the Ministry to engage in such underhanded tactics.”
Wind Concerns Ontario president Jane Wilson reacted with grief and disbelief.
“The hypocrisy of this provincial government is absolutely stunning,” wrote Wilson in a statement. “The timing of the approval announcement is another slap in the face for rural Ontario—the government is saying, we don’t care what people want, or what’s right, we’re helping big business push this through.”
The Association to Protect Prince Edward County condemned the Ministry’s decision to ignore the “well-founded concerns and opposition” to the project, so near a globally significant Important Bird Area.
“It is unconscionable that the MOE would ignore these specialists and rely on inadequately-researched reports by Gilead’s hired consultants,” wrote Henri Garand, chair of APPEC. “The approval decision clearly demonstrates that the MOE has abandoned its real mandate to protect the environment and has become merely a facilitation agency for renewable energy projects. Citizens are assigned the role of opponents or impediments to the interests of money and the Ministry.”
But not everyone is upset by the decision to approve the project. Gilead Power principal Mike Lord said in a statement is pleased with the MOE’s approval.
“We’re committed to making it a model of responsible wind energy development,” says Gilead Power Vice President of Project Development, Mike Lord. “There are many very specific conditions related to the approval and we are committed to meeting or exceeding the conditions”.
Any appeal to the MOE’s decision must be submitted within 15 days of approval—issued on Dec. 20.
“This is the second year in a row that the Ministry has tried to silence public comment on this project by making sure that it coincided with the holiday season. That kind of behaviour is unacceptable, it’s unprofessional and it makes a disgrace of the Ministry to engage in such underhanded tactics.”
Nature Canada’s Cheskey noted that many Christmas holiday plans would set aside by the Ministry’s timing.
“The timing of this announcement is particularly reprehensible,” said Cheskey. “Once announced, the public has 15 days to comment before the approval is final. In this case, starting with December 20 and adding 15 days takes us to Friday, January 4th. Many people go away over the Christmas holidays to visit with family and friends and to take a much needed break from the world of work to refresh and recharge their batteries.
“For many of us, that much needed break has been burdened with the need to respond to the government’s action. It will not exactly be a joyous holiday season with this hanging over our heads.”
Iread in the article where we are very concerned about our enviroment and the wildlife that windmills will destroy.this is quite interesting as we don’t care that much about the enviroment and the wildlife when we allow all to be destroyed when we put in new housing developments,arenas,buy shoreline lots and build a cottage on it.We have even driven our young people away from the COUNTY because we do not want any industry here.Having industry would interupt our sleep or create more traffic on our roads.Heaven forbid.Wildlife is not stupid they will move out of the way.We do this to our wildlife everytime we build a new house.Noone seems to care then so what makes windmills any different.
Well, evil… The problem is exactly as you state it. “They will move out of the way”. We’re doing that to them all over the waterfront areas. That’s called habitat destruction/degradation. That’s the number 1 reason there is a decline in species population worldwide and its happening here in Ontario as well. Wind Turbines are just one more way to reduce the habitat of birds and bats.
This Government never ceases to astound me. They truly have no moral or ethical values–and continue to prove it.
Within 20 years they will be known as “the worst government in Ontario history” and trustingly never to be matched.
Ontario Nature clings to green illusions about greed energy:
“While we support the government’s intention to expand the use of clean and renewable sources of energy through the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, it must not come at the expense of protecting wildlife and intact ecosystems to enhance landscape resilience. ”
The sad truth is that the expansion of the land-devouring “unreliables” under the anti-democratic GEA is the opposite of enhancement of landscape resilience. It takes only a bit of back-of-the-envelope math to realize that unsustainable subsidies are responsible for non-renewable land being wasted on an impossible scale for GREEN ILLUSIONS, read book of that name by Ozzie Zehner. greenillusions.org He shows that climate alarmists should be the first to reject unfounded and grossly wasteful illusions.
For a look at an example of the “sacrifice zones” now being dedicated to Big Energy check out Lake Superior’s threatened watershed https://www.facebook.com/helen.kozoriz?_fb_noscript=1
“The Performance of Wind Farms in the United Kingdom and Denmark”, by Gordon Hughes is a report based on performance data , WEAR AND TEAR HITS WIND FARM OUTPUT AND ECONOMIC LIFETIME( http://www.ref.org.uk/ ) which indicates the countries which have “been there done that” should be an object lesson because the technology fails and keeps failing..”the economic life of onshore wind turbines is between 10 and 15 years, not the 20 to 25 years projected by the wind industry itself, and used for government projections.”
It is perhaps time Ontario Nature actually did a proper performance evaluation on the Ontario grid or they could just ask the Auditor General for Ontario, he seems to be able to do the math. http://lsarc.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/auditors-look-at-the-provinces-books-part-1-hardly-a-glancing-blow/
When looking at how the ERT appeals have turned out, one might be better spending money on helping the Provincial Liberals to not get re-elected rather than putting cash and hope into the ERT money pit. None of the ERT appeal’s to date have successfully stopped any project once they have received their REA, so target your fight where you have a better chance–the court of public opinion–i.e., the ballot box.
We know the call for a Provincial Election will immediately follow the selection of the next leader of the Provincial Fiberals.
We need to focus our resources on helping to annihilate them across Ontario and certainly within the more urban ridings.
We have to educate our urban cousins on how their bottom line is being negatively impacted by the approval and commissioning of all of these industrial wind turbine “factories” which jack up the costs of electricity all around the province.
Focus on the battles we can win, and get the biggest bang for our buck.
The Provincial PCs have promised to scrap the GEEA and to tear up the FIT contracts if elected.
We need to do what we can to ensure that happens!
Support another party? Every out of power party promises to undo what the governing party has done. When was the last time it actually happened?
Conservatives? The people who gave us Mike Harris and Ernie Eves? Timbits says he’ll tear up the contracts – but will he take down the existing turbines? What about the ones at the Chatham airport?
The conservatives have admitted they will have to buy out the contracts, not just tear them up. Nextera, Suncor, etc will be happy – they get all their profit and don’t have to work for it or deal with the possible lawsuits.
This is Timbits who, just a few months ago, said, “We’re Conservatives, we believe in contracts.” The same Timbits who said the Dolton didn’t go far enough with the wage freeze – Timmie wanted to tear up the contract already signed with the public employees.
You want to trust these people? Or any of the other parties? It makes no difference who you vote for – they win, we lose.
Actually, I think we’ve already lost too much. No going back now.
Wish you were correct but think it will be some time before the new leader will reconvene parliament and have the courage to face the people. They will hang on and prove that democracy doesn’t always prevail.
“Reprehensible” is one term we can use but I prefer “CRIMINAL!”
Merry Christmas Ontario taxpayers who support these miserable excuses for Politicians!
You got that right thebiggreenlie! These Criminals belong in jail for fleecing ALL of Ontario with fraud for misleading the public and our government that drank the green Kool-Aid. I guess it is easy to spend someone elses money! Especially when they promote this boondoggle and are in and are bed with the wind sharks for votes from a gullible populace of people too busy to get the facts. Thank God and little green apples that the business community is now making waves! Thank Denmark and Germany for the honest folks that have told the truth about their big experiment with their ” unreliables”! Ontario, take heed! Your grandchildren depend on it!