Unbound

It was remarkable—the speed with which the developer skipped past what must have been a shattering decision, pivoting smoothly to plans to uproot and cart away the vegetation upon which the Blanding’s turtle clings to survival. As if they hadn’t heard the news.

Two Fridays ago, wpd Canada learned that the Tribunal had upheld an appeal of the White Pines wind project—potentially wiping out a significant investment. At the very least, the little brown bat and the Blanding’s turtle posed two new, large and possibly insurmountable impediments. Seven days later, the developer announced it was ordering in heavy equipment to begin clearing the land in preparation for construction.

Who does that? Who receives a judgement that threatens to topple their project one week—and proceeds with construction planning as if nothing happened the next? What do they know that we don’t?

Is it simply an abundance of confidence? Of arrogance? Or are they simply more experienced and better financed than those who would oppose them? And ultimately, is that all that matters? Will money and perseverance eventually overwhelm the province’s feeble safeguards protecting residents, communities and nature?

Are the little brown bats and Blanding’s turtles simply two more boxes to be checked off?

Perhaps I am naïve. Perhaps ’twas ever thus. Perhaps these creatures never stood a chance—the little brown bat and the Blanding’s turtle were doomed to be sacrificed on the altar of green energy. Noble martyrs for an expensive, unreliable and not-particularlygreen energy source.

After all, it was Sylvia Davis, a lawyer for the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change who declared in the Ostrander Point hearing that Ontario’s Statement of Environmental Values (SEV) gives humans supreme dominion over the natural world. According to her reading of the SEV, green energy is in the public interest—and if a few species have to be extinguished along the way, that too is in the public interest. An unfortunate consequence of a glorious green future imagined by politicians.

That is where we have landed after seven years of the Green Energy Act (GEA) in Ontario.

Citizens continue to resist. To push back. They write letters. Give testimony. Endure weeks of hearings. Drain their bank accounts. They do this believing someone will listen to their viewpoint. That it will make a difference.

But what if it doesn’t? What if it matters not at all what residents, organizations and municipalities want or need? What if the game is rigged in favour of developers—so much so that they will always win? Eventually.

The Ostrander Point decision is overdue. The White Pines ruling will follow later this year. We will know this soon enough.

Ultimately, however, it will likely require a court to stop the provincial government from inflicting more damage to the natural environment and the health of Ontario citizens. That is the goal of the judicial review sought by CCSAGE.

These folks are seeking to argue before a court that the GEA is a biased, prejudiced, unfair and, ultimately, unconstitutional law designed solely to circumvent public safeguards and environmental protections. Provisions of the GEA seeking to restrict free trade have already been challenged and withdrawn. Our trading partners have the might to enforce agreements. It is harder for Ontario citizens to do this.

Ontario has signed international agreements, for example, that bind it to protect the natural environment, particularly vulnerable species. But as we have witnessed in the appeal hearings into the Ostrander Point and White Pines project, the province has demonstrated that it is quite willing and eager to sacrifice endangered species for the sake of renewable energy.

Our provincial government behaves as though it is unbound by its agreements, its rules and principles of justice and fairness. A judicial review will seek to compel the province to restore these protections. To re-establish these values.

In the meantime, where is the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF)? Two review tribunals have now raised big red flags about the fate of two endangered species in this province. One has asked important questions about the risks of industrial wind turbines on migratory birds as they near land after a long flight across Lake Ontario. Where is the MNRF investigation? Research? Study? Any curiosity at all about what is happening to these vulnerable species? If it is not the MNRF’s job to look into these questions, then whose is it?

What about the Ministry of Health? The evidence is compelling. More likely than not, the health of some folks deteriorates in the vicinity of industrial wind turbines. Shouldn’t we look at that? Don’t these cases merit further study before we plough more money into developers’ pockets? Before the province imposes these machines on other communities?

rick@wellingtontimes.ca