Corporate wind power or the environment? Guess which side they’re on

March 18, 2025

Last week, Environmental Defence published a statement on renewable energy development in Ontario, complaining about the government’s policies that get in the way of future renewable energy proposals.

It sounds a lot like a list of grievances from the corporate wind power lobby, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association. (We know: we have been to all the IESO stakeholder meetings.)

Environmental Defence claims it stands for protecting the environment, climate, and promoting “healthy communities,” but when it comes to noisy, invasive, land-gobbling, noise polluting, bird-killing giant industrial wind turbines, they’re all in.

The statement was published March 13, and was titled “Five Reasons Renewable Energy Developers are Losing Confidence in Ontario”.

Renewable power developers are “hesitant” about proposing new projects for the IESO ‘s next call for proposals, the LT2-RFP, because:

1. Overly restricting ground-mounted solar in prime agricultural areas. While the Ontario government has unleashed housing sprawl on agricultural lands, including trying to undermine the Greenbelt – it has slammed the door shut on ground-mounted solar in all agricultural lands including Ontario’s marginal farmland. While the previous solar program (the Feed-in-Tariff) excluded ground-mount solar from the best agricultural areas, the current power purchase is excluding solar projects on all farmland. Ontario’s less productive farmland is ideal for “agrivoltaics” projects that combine pasture or grazing land with ground-mount solar projects. 
2. Giving Ontario’s lowest tier municipalities inordinate responsibilities in approving renewable energy projects. While the previous Ontario government overrode municipalities with renewable project approvals (never a good idea), the current government is giving Ontario’s municipalities an inordinate amount of power to say “no” to renewable energy projects if there is local opposition to renewable energy projects. Energy developers are required to not only get Municipal Support Resolutions (MSRs) from local Councils but project proponents must also complete to the satisfaction of the host municipality an Agricultural Impact Assessments (AIA) if applicable, zoning and site plan approvals. All these activities may be challenging to lower-tier municipalities especially as typically higher tier municipalities throughout rural Ontario deliver planning functions. 
3. Delays by government Ministries are jeopardizing renewable energy business case development and potential investments. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has overburdened wind energy developers with significant front-loaded consultation requirements with stakeholders and First Nations for the installation of temporary meteorological masts (towers for wind measurements) on Crown land. This is causing significant delays and risking that wind projects on Crown land will not have the data to bid in the upcoming power purchase. 
4. Proposing a ban on Chinese components from all future energy purchases in Ontario. During the recent Ontario election, the governing party committed to ban “Chinese components from future procurements to keep our grid secure”. If this is actually put into effect, it will disproportionately impact solar developers interested in bidding in Ontario’s upcoming power purchase as Chinese content typically exceeds 80 per cent for solar panels. 
5. Stacking the deck in favour of natural gas developers. Natural gas power plant developers are being offered an unquestionable advantage in the upcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) by giving full points to natural gas developers while not offering the same opportunity to battery storage proponents. And top points to facilities that can run for twelve hours continuously – something that only a gas plant can do. Despite repeated claims to the contrary, the current approach is neither technology agnostic nor does it reflect that Ontario’s peak demand is a maximum of six hours in any 24-hour cycle in both winter and summer. 

Os special note is point number 2, in which Environmental Defence claims Ontario’s smaller municipalities now have an “inordinate amount of power to say No” (#Unwillinghost) to new proposals. In other words, the very communities that would be forced to host noisy, invasive wind power projects for example, ought not to be able to say no, in their view.

The fact is, local land use planning powers were ripped away from municipalities by the Green Energy Act under Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government; the Ford government, specifically minister Todd Smith, simply restored them.

And why are there now 157 municipalities that have passed resolutions declaring themselves to be Unwilling Hosts to new wind power projects? Because: THEY KNOW.

Environmental Defence also objects to the Agricultural Impact Assessment requirement. These assessments are needed so that industrial developments like wind power don’t use up or impact valuable agricultural land—land we need, especially now, for food and food security.

They know what damage is done to community, to people, to the environment, wildlife, electricity bills and they also know that wind power does not do what the Big Wind lobby says it will: it does nothing for climate change, and cannot replace other forms of power generation. In fact, because of its intermittency, more wind has actually meant more natural gas backup.

So while Environmental Defence rails against new natural gas power, it is actually supporting the very thing that means we need more natural gas to help with peak demand. Because wind can’t

Environmental Defence is one of many so-called “environmental” groups whose pro-wind power stance is at odds with their stated missions of protecting the environment.

Demand the truth, not spin.

Contact@windconcernsontario.ca