Yesterday, Ontario got a second wind farm approval through a tribunal appeal under the Green Energy and Green Economy Act. The appellant, the Middlesex-Lambton Wind Action Group Inc. withdrew its appeal suddenly, only a week before the hearings were supposed to start.
I have been following this. From what I can tell they attempted to bring 14 people into a court as witnesses claiming they were being made sick by windmills - the judge askes them to show actual proof by having their own doctor testify or by submitting their medical records, and they decide to bail. Its not good enough to keep repeating the same claims, this is court and they have to bring hard evidence. it really looks like there isn't any!
The court asked for records for 10 years for each of the victims and they required it to be filed in 7 days. I defey anyone to come up with this information in that short of a timeframe. Try to even get an appointment with your doctor in less then 7 days! The evidence on harm is available but can't be delived in the time frame the developers lawyers insisted it be. But hey, no harm done to you nice people living in your condos in downtown Toronto eh? And you have the nerve to put this kind of spin on this! Incredible! Put a 40 story wind turbine in your backyard and then try to live without any effects and come back in 3 or 4 months and give us your views!
Get the whole story. They were given 6 days to gather all the evidence for all those people.. A stacked deck for the wind carpetbaggers and snake oil salesmen, eager to belly up to the public trough. Investors are pulling out, read your newspapers before you judge people that have been through hell. Read about the UK slashing subsidies, Germany and Spain too. Stop drinking the GREEN COOL AID. McGuinty has the smallest setbacks..many other countries listened to their people and have larger set backs. When you can't pay your hydro bill because you have paid so much for wind and solar then paid again to get rid of the excess power, maybe then you will take the time to get the facts and not just read the wind turbine brochures or listen to our Premier that failed to do his homework before he foisted his flawed energy policy on a gullible public, desparate for a feel good solution to climate change. Denmark and Germany have the highest emissions in the world. How come? Follow the money to McGuinty's friends.
Go to ontariowindresistance.org Find out the real story..the story of what is really happening in this once great province.
Melodie why don't you read all of the available info on this subject and not rely on what you are told. Ontario turbine setbacks are stricter than in European countries not the reverse. Subsidies in Europe are being scaled back in accordance with planning that says as costs came down so would subsidies. In this regard German consumer hydro bills are half of what they are in a warm country like Australia due to the high cost of fossil fuels in that country. Germany has a long term goal of 100% renewables by 2050 and still provide reasonable consumer pricing.
I wonder how many of those complaining about the ruination of rural life as a result of wind development are rural born and bred and how many have moved to the country and see their rights as trumping all others
Not a flawed energy policy at all. And check the statistics Melodie - Denmark and Germany have substantially lower emissions than Canada, and (unlike Canada) are working seriously to reduce them. One of the ways that they have succeeded in doing so is by replacing fossil fuel generation with windpower.
Anyway, as you clearly know better than the official statistics, maybe you also know better than the experts on climate impacts. So could youtell us some better ways of addressing the climate crisis?
But there is one major flaw in the Ontario approach - too much dependence on outside private industry. Much better to go the Danish route of local community ownership for windfarms. Funny thing - the nimby groups never seem to be able to name specific cases of health problems attributed to wind power in Denmark - the country where it has had a major impact for the longest time.
Well, let's face it. To arrange for 14 doctors is a little excessive. Is there real evidence? ... I guess we will all see at the next tribunal. You can bet that they will be well prepared to demonstrate without a doubt that IWT should be nowhere near humans.
There is not a lawyer in North America who would be able to provide medical records for 23 witnesses for ten years in SIX DAYS. This is impossible. The hurdle was created in order to force a termination. If you had heard the stories of the many victims of wind, and sensed their honesty and frustration, your heart would spin. No one, no one, leaves a home for no reason. These people are treated like road kill, and the symptoms are the same around the world. Now how did THAT happen?? Get real. The wind industry is very powerful. They are playing with lives and the finances of the province...and care not.
Please all of you that think that the tribunal only gave 6 days for the Appellant's lawyer to produce medical records, go and read the record of the hearing. The rules for such hearings are clearly stated for all to read prior to launching a challenge against an approved project.
Solicitors on both side must provide information to each other and the tribunal in accordance with these rules. The onus is on the appellant to PROVE their case with FACTS not the other way around. Therefore it seems that the solicitor for the appellants in this cae dropped the ball and should shoulder the blame. Tribunals are just referees of existing laws.
Actually Bob you are incorrect.
It is not a matter of missing proof, its a matter of acquiring and assembling the medical records in a format acceptable to the tribunal (not a judge by the way) within the time constraint of the scheduled appeal date. To assemble the records takes time and labour and as such there is no mechanism to invoke a delay to accommodate this requirement. The people are not experts in the process, and accordingly while trying to work within the prescribed framework with limited personal resources, missteps will occur. I look forward to a future opportunity for this data to be brought in the prescribed format and share the results so that a fair and reasonable decision can be made in the best interest of all of Ontario's people.
Please consider that individuals count as much as the whole. For to think otherwise is to condemn the whole, one piece at a time.
William
Too bad you know so little.
Your comments are sooooooo limited to your minimal knowledge of the FACTS.
> 14 witnesses DID give relevant medical records BUT the judges wanted MORE!
They wanted TEN YEARS of records. HOW much does that cost? WHO pays? How LONG does it take?
BEFORE you open your mouth again, DO some RESEARCH!
People have deserted their homes due to failed health as a result of Industrial Wind Turbines. The stress of 24 hour a day noise, and vibration is too much. Put that together with homes that have their value taken away and you better believe they feel sick. The only people who benefit from these things are the landowners who lease their property and the big foreign company's who are putting them up. The people fighting IWT's are regular citizens who never wanted this fight to begin with. They don't deserve to be treated like pawns.
You are quite wide of the mark on this issue. As an RN I am very aware of the problems people are having due to exposure to the environmental noise and vibration produced by these huge power generating machines. People are getting sick: I know of several who are no longer able to work, including a 20-year-old whose inner ear function and balance is so badly affected he can no longer work as a roofer.
As to failing to present evidence on health effects, you are wrong. The decision of the Environmental Review Tribunal last year concluded that: "The evidence presented to the Tribunal demonstrates that they can [cause harm to humans] if facilities are placed too close to residents."
As I understand it, this time, the Tribunal only just granted the community group the right to present the witnesses but then they only had one week to get the evidence together for 20 witnesses. It was not enough time.
If you were truly concerned about the environment--including people's health--you would read more widely on this subject including the serious health effects from environmental noise, and have more compassion for your fellow citizens who are forced to live with these industrial projects.
You might also look up what wind projects are doing to birds: eagles in California, all types of birds on Wolfe Island, and what may happen if a project at Ostrander Point in Ontario goes ahead.
I am an opponent of industrial wind turbines, so you will know where I am coming from. The request for medical records for the 23 witnesses for the last 10 years was made just 6 days before the tribunal. That task for anyone in the know, is nigh to impossible to obtain that quickly. But be assured the medical records are being obtained, and we will be taking up the issue in court as soon as they are obtained. The problem is not with the citizens being affected by the turbines,but by the corrupt government of this province, that denies our rights to have this health issue settled by doing a third party independent epidemiology study. It is obvious to me that this corrupt government is afraid of having the study done, whatever may be found, so that the citizens in rural Ontario can have peace of mind. To bad you enviromentalists weren't so bias and then you could deal with reality. Stewart Lewis
Rampant fear-mongering has been the style of the WCO faction for years now,by basing their actions and reactions on perceptions and mis-conceptions. The scientific evidence against their case mounts daily, yet they persist with their efforts to scare the public into supporting their cause. They won't provide any health information to anyone who will actually analyse it with a neutral and critical eye as then their entire song and dance gets revealed as a farce. How long will they continue to stall and delay the inevitable work that needs to be done to get our society off of polluting energy sources and onto the clean energy renewable path once and for all?
If the medical symptoms are so widespread and rampant, why isn't the evidence forthcoming for those who are suffering?
I have heard that the Head of the WCO organisation has told its members not to cooperate with the study. Now what is an ordinary person to make of this?
That is not true: as I read it on the WCO website, the head of WCO cautioned people to ask questions about the study before deciding to participate, as there were some concerns about confidentiality etc.
Don,
You seem in an awful hurry to get these projects approved. One has to wonder why... what`s in it for you? A few months, even years is not going to significantly affect your climate change prognosis. It might make perhaps a day or so difference to climate change armageddon. Why the rush, why throw caution to the wind?
Don, "rampant fear-mongering"!!! Chill dude. What's your hurry. In this case a few months or even a few years is not going to have any significant impact on the inevitable climate change armageddon on which you premise your statements. I gather you get uptight when you don't get your way. Here's a simple mind/word game I play when I get frazzled that really helps me to relax: (Just fill in the blank section) If I were a floundering Real Estate Agent living in Prince Edward County and knew that heavily subsidized Industrial Wind Turbine developments were coming I'd......... to cash in.
Is the Oak Ridges Moraine the right spot to install industrial wind farm projects? How many energy infrastructure projects on the Oak Ridges Moraine will be too many? If one project is approved it will open the floodgates to infrastructure on the Moraine. The Oak Ridges Moraine is once again under attack. Currently, there are 9 energy infrastructure projects slated for the moraine. The Oak Ridges Moraine is an environmentally sensitive, geological landform that contains the headwaters of 65 rivers and streams and whose deep aquifer systems provide clean drinking water directly to 250,000 and indirectly to millions more. Many of these projects will have thousands of truckloads of sand and gravel delivered. Thousands of tonnes of concrete will be poured into the moraine. Is this the proper location for them?
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