Not a Willing Host communities voices grow

Posted here on the London Free Press website, the online version of a feature for this weekend.

This blows: Growing list of Ontario municipalities declare ‘unwilling hosts’ to wind turbines

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By Chip Martin ,The London Free Press
First posted: | Updated:
wind turbines
Wind powered turbines spin on a wind farm in Port Burwell, a town near London, Ont. (Derek Ruttan/QMI Agency files)

LONDON, ONT. – Enough. Dozens of Ontario municipalities say they don’t want wind turbines.
Heavily pushed by the provincial Liberal government, the electricity they produce deeply subsidized by taxpayers, giant wind energy projects have sprouted across rural Ontario — often pitting neighbour against neighbour and community against community.
With local control over where the highrise-sized towers can be built taken away by the province, many communities — especially in southwestern Ontario — were already fuming about wind turbines long before Premier Kathleen Wynne took office in February, vowing not to impose such projects any more on places unwilling to take them.
Now, a list of unwilling hosts is circulating — with 61 of the province’s 444 municipalities already on it.
That number will only rise, observers warn, as the “Not a Willing Host” movement grows and pressures the government to bar the industrial turbines from rural Ontario, where 1,200 have already cropped up.
Wind Concerns Ontario, an organization upset at the province’s aggressive promotion of wind power at the expense of local control, compiles and maintains the list of unwilling hosts.
“It was important for someone to keep this list and say, ‘You are not alone,’” said Wind Concerns president Jane Wilson.
“Wind power can work,” she conceded, “but plunking them (turbines) down, right next to communities and next to homes and schools, is not the right idea.”
Ninety municipalities — in favourable zones, located mainly in southwestern and eastern Ontario — “are vulnerable to wind power,” she said.
“That’s where the wind companies have been prospecting.” As the list stands now, two-thirds of those “vulnerable” municipalities are effectively saying no more.
Wind Concerns has dubbed the seven years of wind power development under the Liberals “a disaster for rural Ontario.”

Read the full article at the London Free Press site.

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3 Comments

  • Jane Wilson
    Posted August 16, 2013 9:38 pm 0Likes

    To clarify, I said that wind power, which is an industrial power generation process, does have some uses, e.g., as part of diamond mining operations in NWT, and in remote locations in NL where otherwise, power is generated by diesel generators, and where the turbines are relatively small AND located well away from people.
    Jane Wilson

  • wgulden
    Posted August 17, 2013 4:51 pm 0Likes

    Just a day later, and 61 has become 62, with the addition of North Huron. Just about everyone in that part of Ontario is now on record as being unwilling. The link to the latest map is in the right-hand margin, about 2/3 the way down.

  • David Libby
    Posted August 18, 2013 1:53 am 0Likes

    There is an old strategy “I’m not against green energy if…variety of reasons given” I think the idea is to make a person seem more reasonable and not a NIMBY.

    I am not sure about that approach. The best possible result from that is a break even outcome. Then, in certain situations it might only be partially quoted or heard. Then it really turns out really bad.

    I have been trying to think of a better approach. First never bring the subject up “not against green energy if…” If asked the question don’t answer it directly, go on to state why turbines are bad. Give an example or two. That way we get our point out there immediately and don’t have to deal with the wishy-washy questions and answers.

    If some asks me if I am NIMBY I tell them “You are damn right I am. If I don’t protect my family, home, community and Country nobody else will” People do not know how to react to that. I am not sure if everyone should use it but it seems to work.

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