Huge wind turbines are near completion in North Stormont, in Eastern Ontario. Now, a community has to find a way to heal, if it can, after a scattering of property owners consented to industrialization of the rural area that will affect everyone.
March 4, 2021
An editorial in the Eastern Ontario edition of Farmers Forum says “Toronto” should never have imposed the 100-megawatt Nation Rise wind power facility on the communities of North Stormont.
In his editorial titled “How wind turbines scarred a landscape and a community,” editor Patrick Meagher notes that the township conducted a survey of residents and found most didn’t want the wind turbine development, and then unanimously voted to declare North Stormont an “Unwilling Host”.
“But things didn’t go that way,” Meagher writes.
Weeks before the provincial election in 2018, the Liberal government “greenlighted the project. This was in spite of a longstanding agreement not to approve major projects when another government could take over. Wynne got a two-for-one deal, sticking it to the next government and the locals at Crysler, Berwick and Finch.” (The riding went Conservative.)
The wind power project caused strong feelings, Meagher says. “The project was so acrimonious that in this small community friendships broke up, family members stopped talking to each other, and more than 10 property owners sold their houses and moved away.”
Now the community is “stuck” with 29 huge turbines that are “large, inefficient, taxpayer-subsidized generators of intermittent power…not even a good business decision.”
“This ugly event is testimony to why governments should listen to the people they work for…Toronto should never have decided what should happen in this small farming community 400 kilometres away.”
The editorial also quoted former mayor Dennis Fife who said the community now has to try to move on.
Reposted from Ottawa Wind Concerns
contact@windconcernsontario.ca
4 Comments
Richard Mann
Wind turbines need to stop due to documented, ongoing, and cumulative health harm from infra sound.
Please see the following talk,
September 12, 2019. University of Waterloo.
Mariana Alves-Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal). “Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise: Physics & Cells, History & Health”.
Livestream:
https://livestream.com/itmsstudio/events/8781285
Despite repeated attempts to contact government, no one has responded to my requests for a meeting with Government.
I note that WCO had meetings with government officials in the past. In addition, recently (Jan and Feb of this year) [redacted]also had two meetings with government officials and has communicated with WCO about this. As far as I know, infra sound was not discussed at any of these meetings. Why is that?
Wind Concerns Ontario
You can meet with your MPP.
Sommer
Who will measure infrasound from the Nation Rise turbines once they’re turned on?
https://littlefield.co/the-psychoacoustic-effect-of-infrasonic-sonic-and-ultrasonic-frequencies-within-non-lethal-cf05e1fd8673
Richard Mann
Dear WCO and others:
On March 11, 2021 I received this letter from a third party. I note the letter is dated Jan 28, 2021.
Richard Mann
(encl: text)
Ministry of Energy,
Northern Development
and Mines Ministère de l’Énergie,
du Développement du Nord
et des Mines
Office of the Minister Bureau du ministre
Office of the Associate Minister
of Energy Bureau du ministre associé
de l’Énergie
77 Grenville Street, 10 th Floor
Toronto ON M7A 2C1
Tel.: 416-327-6758 77, rue Grenville, 10 e étage
Toronto ON M7A 2C1
Tél. : 416 327-6758
January 28, 2021
Dear Stakeholder:
We are writing today to inform you that our government is now soliciting feedback on Ontario’s long-term energy planning framework through the Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO). This posting will be open to comments for a period of 90 days, closing on April 27, and can be found at https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-3007.
Last year, we took the first step forward in our plan to reform Ontario’s long-term energy planning process by revoking O. Reg. 311/17, the regulation that outlined timing requirements for publishing Long-Term Energy Plans. Now we are building on our commitment to promote transparency, accountability and effectiveness of energy planning and decision-making in order to increase investment certainty and to ensure the interests of ratepayers are protected.
A desired outcome of the new planning framework would be to empower expert technical planners, such as the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), to plan the most reliable and cost-effective system. To achieve this objective, the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (ENDM) is considering revoking the provisions of the Electricity Act, 1998 related to Long-Term Energy Plans, implementation directives and implementation plans.
ENDM is also considering whether the IESO and the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) have the appropriate mandates and authorities to undertake an expanded planning and resource acquisition role. This could include the development of a new approval process for certain types of policy-driven decisions.
As part of the ERO posting, and listed below, you will find an inexhaustive set of questions intended to help guide your feedback:
How can we promote transparency, accountability and effectiveness of energy planning and decision-making under a new planning framework?
What overarching goals and objectives should be recognized in a renewed planning framework?
What respective roles should each of the government, IESO, and OEB hold in energy decision-making and long-term planning?
…/cont’d-2-
What kinds of decisions should be made by technical planners at the IESO and the OEB as regulators?
What types of decisions should require government direction or approval?
Are there gaps in the IESO and OEB’s mandates and objectives that limit their ability to effectively lead long-term planning?
Should certain planning processes or decisions by the IESO, OEB, or the government receive additional scrutiny, for example through legislative oversight or review by an expert committee?
How often and in what form should government provide policy guidance and direction to facilitate effective long-term energy planning?
How do we ensure effective and meaningful Indigenous participation in energy sector decision-making?
As we develop this new framework, we invite you and fellow energy sector participants, experts, Indigenous communities, and Ontario businesses and residents, to share your expertise, experience and ideas about how we can maximize transparency and accountability in our energy planning process.
This new framework, with your support, will ensure that future decisions are made with an eye to cost, and in the best interest of Ontario’s electricity customers.
Our government, through ENDM, is committed to building a transparent long-term energy planning framework that is free from future political interference and prioritizes Ontario’s energy consumers. With your support, we are confident we will achieve this.
Sincerely,
The Honourable Greg Rickford
Minister of Energy, Northern
Development and Mines
The Honourable Bill Walker
Associate Minister of Energy