![3-MW wind turbine and house near Brinston: Ontario hasn't learned a thing. [Photo: Ray Pilon, Ottawa]](http://www.windconcernsontario.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/BrinstonIWT-RayPilon.jpg)
Farmers Forum, Eastern Ontario Edition, March 2016
TEARING US APART
Wounds not healing after wind turbines turned friends into bitter enemies
By Tom Collins
BRINSTON—Wind turbines tear apart communities and relationships, causing animosity that lingers for years, warn farmers who have lived through the ugly battles.
Don Winslow signed up almost immediately in 2013 when a wind company planned to build five turbines near Peterborough. Three months later, after immense public pressure and hostility, he couldn’t do it anymore.
“It relieved our stress tremendously [to cancel the contract],” the then-70-year-old Winslow told Farmers Forum after he cancelled his turbine. “We don’t have to sneak around the neighbours hoping not to run into them. There is always an element of society that is going to go overboard but people I respected were just as upset as the real radicals.”
There are only three wind turbine projects in Eastern Ontario – Brinston (10 turbines), Wolfe Island (86 turbines) and 5 turbines just west of Kingston, but there are more than 1,200 turbines in the province with another 1,500 on the way. The province is expected to announce new projects this month that could include another 98 turbines in Eastern and East-Central Ontario.
Most turbines are in Western Ontario where the stories are shocking.
They put their pocketbook ahead of the community
Time doesn’t heal all wounds, said Guelph-area dairy farmer Tim Martin. “There are people here that have absolute hatred for others. I have never seen anything so divisive in our community, ever, in my entire life. You try to say forgive and forget, but a lot of people say ‘We forgive them but we remember.’ They put their pocketbook ahead of our health and above the community’s well-being, and people don’t forget that.”
See an excerpt of this article here: Farmers ForumMarch2016-Tearing UsApart
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16 Comments
Sommer
When I see the tweet from Scott Luft today saying ‘Samsung K2 Project made IWT supply in Bruce zone-worthless shown by my summary data” and I know the grief that this project has brought to marriages, families, friends and neighbours, it makes me so sad that Premier Wynne and Minister Chiarelli refuse to make the necessary changes and continue to allow this ridiculous situation to go on. What a nightmare this has been and still is!
How will we ever heal the damage this has caused?
Barbara
FossilFree, Project of 350.org
Divestment Commitments
505 Institutions Divesting
View the list for Canadian organizations at:
http://gofossilfree.org/commitments
Barbara
The Globe And Mail, Aug.26, 2015
Canadian Medical Association to divest of fossil fuels and invest in renewables such as wind and solar.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-medical-association-divesting-fossil-fuel-holdings/article26115904
Barbara
CMAJ, Sept.22, 2015, News, First published Aug.24, 2015
‘Doctors call for divestment from fossil fuels’
http://www.cmaj.ca/content/187/13/E403.full
Sommer
While you’re reading the CMAJ blogs, check out this article on wind turbines.
http://cmajblogs.com/health-canada-and-wind-turbines-too-little-too-late/
Barbara
And that article was published Nov.28, 2014 and then in August, 2015 the CMA made their decision.
It’s been a long trail to follow with the medical issues but the end may be in sight as to what has been taking place in Canada.
Pat Cusack
They don’t give a lesser damn!
Barbara
Interlochen Public Radio/IPR, April 3, 2015
‘Wind gets cheaper ,but energy for building turbines wanes’
“in fact, the man who has developed wind farms we have in northern Michigan says his enthusiasm for wind is waning.”
Wind farms in Michigan still being “sold” as farm income.
http://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/post/wind-gets-cheaper-energy-building-turbines-wanes
Jd
I use to wave with two fingers. I now only use one. It will never heal.
Melodie Burkett
I would NEVER prostitute my farm to such a useless and intermittent form of energy. We lose millions and millions every year selling our surplus to the US for a song . Sometimes we have to pay U S jurisdictions to take our surplus I ask why anyone would invest in something that DOES NOT WORK 70% of the time.
Bats have been decimated by white nose syndrome 90% ! They are attracted to the lights and updrafts near the wind turbines. The wind industry knows how bad the situation is.but refuse to stop the killing spree .Our Wynne government is ignoring this!! Our raptors are being killed by the wind turbines as well. Millions in Europe reported killed by the turbines! This is madness! Most rural municipalities in Ontario have declared themselves UNWILLING HOSTS but the MOECC approves project applications anyway and our greedwashed government stands strong in collusion with the wind co shysters!
Wind turbines have dine NOTHING to reduce emissions anywhere in the world!! Germany has in fact had incresed emissions due to their turbines relying on fossil fuel back up when the wind doesn’t blow! Germany opened 26 new coal plants and their coal is not the hard black coal like ours, it is the soft dirty brown coal called lignite !
China opens a new coal plant every week!!! So how is Ontario helping the environment by plastering rural Ontario with Thousands of impotent raptor and bat chomping 50 and 60 story tall clusters of giant industrial scale wind turbines? Our government needs to appear green to the masses and garner their votes. Wind Turbines give people that warm fuzzy feeling that we are combating climate change…It is a big fat lie that at this point no one knows how to back away from.
Most European countries are STOPPING subsidies to these wind weasels knowing full well that when the money dries up, they will fold up their tent and go away! ( leaving rusted out hulks of towers as they claim bankruptcy.
Ontario has lost 300 thousand jobs because companies have shut down or moved elsewhere as they can not pay for such expensive Ontario rates. Families have had to abandon their farms and homes to get away from the Low Frequency emissions that have made them sick from sleep deprivation, nausea, vertigo, headaches and hypertension. They were healthy before the wind turbines came and their symptoms go away when the leave the project area. It is criminal that our government allows this torture to go on .
Barbara
The government is now in the position where it can be sued for NOT awarding contracts to developers.
p Smith
Who actually is behind this? Oil companies?
Barbara
Fossil fuel companies do own renewable energy projects in Canada.
But was this done to appease the anti-fossil fuel crowd? If so, they lost as the goal is to stop fossil fuel production in Canada.
Fossil fuel companies signed onto carbon tax and/or cap-and-trade to try and save the fossil fuel industry? Ecofiscal Canada established.
Money was brought into Canada to shut down the fossil fuel industry as documented by Vivian Krause.
The fossil fuel divestment crowd is active in Canada.
Barbara
ADVISOR.ca, June 26, 2015
‘Who Will Settle With CRA Next?’
Scroll down to: Investment Perspective
Algonquin Power
For more information Google CNW , ‘Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. Resolves Proposed Reassessment with CRA’, June 26, 2015
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. is a public company so corporate financial information is available for the public.
Barbara
http://www.advisor.ca/tax/tax-news/who-will-settle-with-cra-next-185255
Barbara
Science Direct/Elsevier
News: ‘Hydrogenics in reverse merger with Algonquin Power’
Fuel Cells Bulletin, Volume 2009, Issue 8, Aug.2009, Pages 10-11
Abstract:
APIF/Algonquin Power Income Fund in complex deal with Hydrogenics Corp., Toronto. Algonquin takes over tax losses to offset future tax bills
Payment required for full text.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464285909702640