Wind power in Ontario’s North: environment and economy at risk

A common response to objections to industrial-scale wind power development in southern Ontario is, Why not put them up North then? Nobody lives there. The members of Save Ontario’s Algoma Region* know the reasons why wind power development is inappropriate for Ontario’s North, too.

“A national treasure” – Photos Gary and Joanie McGuffin

February 21, 2017
The municipalities of rural Southern Ontario have soundly opposed and stalled the attempt of the government to initiate a new round of Request for Proposals for Large Renewable Procurements. This opposition has been based primarily on the harm wind turbines create for human health.
The Northern Ontario objection to wind-generated electricity is quite different from that of the South. The health of the Northern economy is the primary opposition issue to wind turbine developments. The Northern economy, which once relied on its primary resource-based industries, is currently facing an economic decline in those industries. This is in part due to the high cost of energy which has forced the closure of many sawmills, pulp and paper mills and fibreboard mills. Northerners are currently examining the potential for developing an expanded eco-tourism based economy. The Northern view is that its future prosperity can be restored utilizing the inherent values offered through its last remaining asset, an uncompromised wild landscape and natural environment.
Despite regional differences, Southern Ontario and Northern Ontario are both strongly opposed to the generation of energy by industrial wind installations. However, unlike the South, Northern Ontario’s low population provides no voting power to impact government decisions. Much of rural Northern Ontario is unincorporated and has no official municipal voice to object. This requires support for the North from those in the Southern regions as opposition is only stronger with a unified approach.
Here’s why Requests For Proposals in the North should also be stalled.

  1. The Right to Self Determination
  • Because of the geographic differences between Northern and Southern Ontario, Northeastern and Northwestern Ontario have a right to determine their own economic destiny according to their regional values and available resources.
  • Although Northwestern Ontario is “A Place to Grow Electrically”, this vision does not include wind energy. The Big Thunder Wind Park proposed for Thunder Bay has already been scrapped in part because of First Nation objections to the impact on the natural environment.

 

  1. Ontario does not need to generate more power in Northern Ontario
  1.  Unfavourable Economic Outcomes for the Consumer
  • Generating electricity in remote northern locations requires long transmission to major consuming centers in Southern Ontario. This long transmission leads to energy loss.    The technical term for this is “line loss.” Line loss has the effect of making wind –powered electricity 30% percent more expensive than if it is generated near the ultimate users in densely populated urban centres.
  • Moving more electricity from the north to the south will require a huge investment in transmission infrastructure. This investment will be reflected in further increases in the line item called “delivery charges” on consumers’ monthly power bills.
  • The construction of more intermittent wind capacity will require the construction of more off-setting natural gas powered generation. That will have to be built where natural gas supply is already available, which won’t fit with remote northern locations.  If natural gas generation facilities are placed in the North, then more pipelines to move the natural gas to those facilities will be required, and of course, the electricity will still be subject to the 30%-line loss cost boost when it is sent south.
  • The terrain of Southern Ontario (vast areas of flat farm land) makes it easier and less costly to construct wind installations than on Northern Ontario’s rocky terrain. Algoma Power Inc. (API) has the highest electricity rates in Ontario. The vast rocky plateau of the Canadian Shield is really hard on API vehicles—a cost which is passed on to their customers.
  • Power generation from wind cost Ontario’s ratepayers over $1.7 billion (approximately 12% of total generation costs) in 2016 for just over 6% of demand. Further development of wind generation—especially from the remote North—will continue to increase ratepayers’ electricity bills.

 

  1. First Nations Treaty Rights
  • Northern Ontario wind power developments must be viewed in the context of the treaty rights of First Nations. Three of the most important treaties in Northern Ontario involve the Robinson-Huron Treaty, the Robinson-Superior Treaty and Treaty 3. These treaties cover an enormous geographic region of the province.
  • The treaties are viewed differently by the Crown and First Nations. The Crown (provincial or federal) believes that it has the ultimate authority over a treaty and that the First Nations are subordinate. Crown decisions over resource development therefore are paramount.
  • First Nations—especially the Anishinaabeg people who signed the Robinson Treaties—maintain that their traditional lands and waters and the resources therein were never surrendered, but exist today in a sharing agreement with the Crown. Hence all resource development on traditional lands must involve First Nations in agreement and management decisions.
  • Suggesting that the North is largely unoccupied and therefore an easy mark for future industrial wind development ignores the huge issues that will arise from a lack of understanding of First Nations’ claims over their territorial lands. First Nations are now exercising their right to demand their fair share of profits derived from wind generation on these traditional lands. These profits from their partnerships with wind industries are currently raising the cost per Kw Hour proportionally according to the percentage of their ownership.

 

  1. Eco-Tourism—A Natural Fit for a Sustainable Economy in the North
  • In a “green” world, eco-tourism must form an increasingly significant part of sustainable job creation in Northeastern Ontario. The imposition of wind turbine installations on coastlines (and perhaps in Lake Huron and Lake Superior) will seriously erode the value of eco-tourism as a sustainable economic base in regions which already rely heavily on year-round tourism.
  • Algoma and Thunder Bay Districts have a vision of a sustainable economy driven by eco-tourism—a vision which has been supported by a million-dollar Trans Canada Trail Grant in the creation of a Lake Superior Water Trail to be officially opened in June 2017 at Gros Cap in Prince Township north of Sault Ste. Marie. (For evidence of this see: http://ijc.org/greatlakesconnection/en/2017/02/building-water-trail-lake-superior-community/#.WKPJFRmbEIs.mailto)

 
As the photographs in this article reveal, the Lake Superior Basin is a national treasure which all Canadians and visitors to Canada have the right to enjoy in its natural state.

The people of Ontario have as a common goal the protection, conservation and restoration of the natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations (Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993).

The natural unspoiled state of the shores and coastal highlands of the Lake Superior Basin is the legacy we leave for the benefit of tomorrow.

 
The authors of this article are members of the Save Ontario’s Algoma Region (SOAR) Writing Team.
*SOAR is a member of Wind Concerns Ontario.

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16 Comments

  • Andre Lauzon
    Posted February 21, 2017 5:19 pm 0Likes

    Could someone in the Gov’t go on television and explain in plain English why the Province wants to keep on paying those high, immoral subsidies for electricity we do not need.

    • Segue C
      Posted February 22, 2017 11:27 am 0Likes

      “…explain in plain English why the Province wants to keep on paying…”
      Andre, it seems people simply won’t understand that a pernicious leftist ideology intends to destroy capitalism even when when the intention is laid out in black and white…read Dr Ball’s books or blog posts and those of many others who have come to this quandary from different perspectives.
      Perhaps those who started researching our personal motivating issue without a political bias had the advantage of being alarmed as soon as facts were found to be suppressed and were ineffectual even when presented in logical argument by respected authorities such as our Auditor General(s).
      To persist in throwing down the facts and hoping this time they will stick denies the reality that we are dealing with a political tyranny which has global reach. NB we are following the example of Europe in more than just greed energy. Alternative media will show you what is coming our way, MSM, as we know from the wind experience, prefers fiction.

  • Dr Tim Ball
    Posted February 21, 2017 6:13 pm 0Likes

    I would like to tell you of my latest book, “Human Caused Global Warming”.
    Available on ‘Amazon.ca’ and ‘Indigo/Chapters’.
    http://www.drtimball.com

    • Sommer
      Posted February 22, 2017 10:21 am 0Likes

      Wow…thank you, Dr. Ball!
      For those who still do not understand that the misery these turbines have caused/are causing so many people in rural Ontario is the result of deception, please familiarize yourselves with the enormous effort Dr. Ball has made to expose this.

  • Pat Cusack
    Posted February 21, 2017 6:29 pm 0Likes

    Humans may not be nice to our planet but they have had little impact on global warming which really does not exist. The climate has always changed, how many humans were around during the last warming and cooling periods. Making humans responsible for the current problems mat keep some busy but it would make more sense to work with what is really happening. Bernie

    • Lynda
      Posted February 22, 2017 12:36 pm 0Likes

      Yes, the proliferation of the global warming myth is making a few people extremely wealthy. BO and wife take separate planes when going to the same destination. Gore and the hollywood elite jet everywhere while telling the masses to walk. What a joke.

  • Barbara
    Posted February 21, 2017 10:03 pm 0Likes

    MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
    ‘Ontario’s Experience of Wind Energy Development as Seen through the Lens of Human Health and Environmental Justice’. Published July 6, 2016.
    “Based on these findings, we suggest that Ontario’s media may be amplifying perceptions of wind turbine health risks within the public domain.”
    http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/7/684/htm
    Quite a few pages to wade through.

    • Sommer
      Posted February 23, 2017 3:01 pm 0Likes

      The society of Professional Journalist’s Code of Ethics clearly states that journalists must:
      “Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.”
      Have journalists actually been doing this? Would we still have people being harmed to this day if they had?
      This article did not mention the way rural communities have been divided and the reality that members of the media are reluctant to “hold those with power accountable” when they’ve been given information about serious lack of accountability to those being harmed. With highly polarized situations like this that involve large amounts of money, they fear the negative ramifications.
      Correct me if I’m wrong.

  • winds got to go
    Posted February 22, 2017 12:35 am 0Likes

    I hate to change the subject but the new electrical line going under the lake to the states. Anybody have a clue on who is paying for this .another way of getting cheap energy to the states We need to find out about the agreement that’s has been made . More high $ solar wind reduced to zip for the states .this government sucks !!!

    • Barbara
      Posted February 22, 2017 5:24 pm 0Likes

      This is a privately financed merchant HVDC project. At present the owner is ITC based in Novi, Mich.
      This project has been approved by the NEB in Canada and also has a U.S. Presidential Permit as of January, 2017. Also known as the Nanticoke project.
      And as I recall, ITC is now owned by Fortis ? But I can look this up.
      This merchant line is said to be fully subscribed to but the subscribers are unknown.
      This merchant line will connect to the U.S. PJM grid. There is now a court case about intermittent generation being allowed on this PJM grid.
      https:www.rtoinsider.com/ferc-pjm-capacity-performance-38785
      Scroll down to the wind generation part.

  • Barbara
    Posted February 22, 2017 11:20 pm 0Likes

    The Lima News, Ohio, Feb.19, 2016
    ‘William J. Seitz and Kevon Martis: Trespass zoning is wind energy’s secret subsidy’
    Re: Wind energy siting and setbacks.
    Scroll way down and read at:
    https://limaohio.com/opinion/columns/167093/william-j-seitz-and-kevon-martis-trespass-zoning-is-wind-energys-secret-subsidy

  • Barbara
    Posted February 25, 2017 4:11 pm 0Likes

    Biomass Sustainability Analysis Summary Report, April 2011
    “OPG coal generating stations, if converted to biomass or natural gas, will produce less electricity than in the past, but will serve a backup role and complement renewable forms of electricity generation like wind and solar.”
    Read the Summary Report at:
    http://www.biomassinnovation.ca/pdf/report_pembina_biomassstudysummaryopg-april2011_small.pdf

  • Stan Thayer
    Posted February 26, 2017 9:51 am 0Likes

    OK Ok everybody. We know we have been had. I have heard all the same complaints over and over for over ten years. Yes our predictions have come true, all involved knew they would from the beginning. We need to start some kind of corrective action! The industries that have left are not coming back but for our farmers and those that cannot just pack up and leave we have to try something, anything. Tahell with government, they don’t care anyway. Let’s get some ideas to slow the slide into bankruptcy.
    Stan Thayer Alexandria

    • Barbara
      Posted March 1, 2017 2:37 pm 0Likes

      Have community meetings to discuss what steps will be needed to correct this situation?

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