Manitoulin Coalition for Safe Energy Alternatives » rdjeffery

OFA takes courageous stand against IWT

rdjeffery — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:17:24 +0000

NP has submitted the McLeans Mountain project to MOE

rdjeffery — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:46:30 +0000

We now have a comment period that ends on Jan 23, 2011. We know there is widespread opposition to this project – it is imperative that everyone voices their opposition to the EBR by the above date. Read over the proposal carefully. It is available on the Northland Power web site or at the town office.

Where to send your comments:

1. Go to www.ebr.gov.on.ca EBR #011-5195

2.Send letter of email directly to Kristina Rudzki, Project Evaluator, Ministry of the Environment, EAB, 2 St. Clair Av W, Floor 12 A Toronto, M4L 1L5, email: Kristina.Rudzki@ontario.ca

Project_Description_Report Summary

Commenting on Northland’s REA

rdjeffery — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:19:55 +0000

Better than commenting on Northland’s REA for the McLean’s Mountain Wind Project would be to have the MOE send the REA back to Northland.

We all know the process for approving wind facilities is not based on science or reason, it is based on money and politics.

Let’s put as much pressure as possible on the MOE before they make their decision regarding the completeness of Northland’s REA.

Forward the following message on to everyone you know who cares about Manitoulin Island.

Want to help protect Manitoulin Island from widespread industrialization? Visit the Wind Concerns Ontario website and send a message to Queen’s Park:

http://windconcernsontario.wordpress.com/send-comment/

This will take five minutes or less, and could make a bigger difference than you know. It’s all about numbers, we need to get as many people as possible to send a comment. They don’t have to be long well-developed arguments (these are good though), we just need to let Queen’s Park know that we don’t want industrial wind turbines on Manitoulin Island.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter,

MCSEA

NORTHLAND SUBMITS REA

rdjeffery — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:02:50 +0000

Don’t like what is happening to your neighbourhood?

Have concerns about HEALTH EFFECTS, SAFETY, NOISE, HARM TO WILDLIFE, DEVALUATION OF YOUR PROPERTY, DEGRADATION OF MANITOULIN’S FAMOUS SCENERY, LOSS OF JOBS ?

NORTHLAND POWER HAS NOW SUBMITTED ITS APPLICATION FOR APPROVAL TO THE MINISTRY OF THE ENERGY (YES A FEW AUTOCRATS IN TORONTO WILL DECIDE THE FATE OF OUR COMMUNITY)

By law the MOE must post the application for comment for 60 days. This is our last chance to be heard. It is imperative that everyone with concerns goes to the following website – _we will get you this info as soon as available . Enter the page for the McLeans Mountain Project – ______________. View the latest proposal from Northland Power. Submit your comments about all your concerns. If you need more information you can refer to the following websites – MCSEA, WIND VIGILANCE, WIND CONCERNS ONTARIO.

ANYONE can submit their comments. Even if you are not from the NE corner of the Island your help is needed to try to stop the industrialization of Manitoulin Island with giant turbines. We believe that if Northland Phase One is approved the doors will be thrown wide open. As many as 600 turbines have been suggested. Please act now before it is too late. Save the Great Spirit Island!

The Rise of Democracy

rdjeffery — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 14:07:31 +0000

The people will have their say.

Wind Power no benefit to Manitoulin

Attention McGuinty and Brown – Democracy is still alive in Ontario!

rdjeffery — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:36:03 +0000

MCSEA News Release

There is breaking news from the Wikwemikong First Nation in their
oppostion to the exploitation by wind farm development on Mnidoo Mnising
(Manitoulin Island).

Here is a statement to MCSEA from elder spokesperson Rosemary Wakegijig
on June 7,2011 following a meeting in their community.

“It is 10:40 p.m. Chief and Council took the wind farm development
endeavour out of their work plan. However, we decided we will continue
with the petition and also to support yours.

We gave approx. 80% of the buttons, even the Pro WT councillor wore one.
We made a powerful presence. Even without the drum. There is still much
work to be done for the whole Island issue and ours. We want plenty of
names.”

The following was posted on the Wikwemikong youth facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_122100501206090

Ashlee Manitowabi posted this on Facebook last night:
“Chief n council of Wikwemikong agreed to stop the spin in wiky so no
windfarms in wiky.It was a fight n we believed in r selves next we want
to support the great spirit island to stop the spin.”

This is democracy in action in our country represented in the Wikwemikong
community where the elders and youth have come together to protect their
culture and heritage. As residents of their community, they have restored
the voice of the people and influenced the decision makers of their land
to represent what the community members want.

These democratic rights have been stripped from rural Ontario citizens through the
provincial Liberals Green Energy Act, an industrial policy that is
dressed up as an environmental policy. This is an act that they will
certainly be held accountable for in the upcoming provincial election
this October.

Here is the agenda for Thursdays Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the
Islands meeting of the Administration & Finance Committee to be held
June 9, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. In the NEMI Recreation Centre in Little
Current.

AGENDA

4. Deputation: Rosemary Wakegijig – Wind Turbine Development

We support the Elders and youth in their presentation to NEMI council.

Thank you
Raymond Beaudry
MCSEA
Manitoulin Coalition For Safe Energy Alternatives
mcsea.ca/
Wind Concerns Ontario
http://windconcernsontario.wordpress.com/

Trade Fair Booth a Resounding Success

rdjeffery — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:22:43 +0000

The Trade Fair Booth was a resounding success. Manitoulin residents and visitors lined up at times 6 deep to get more information from MCSEA on all the IWT projects planned for Manitoulin. There was overwhelming support expressed for our mission and several hundred people signed our petition calling for NO MORE TURBINES ON the GREAT SPIRIT ISLAND. A model of Manitoulin Island with 288 turbines (only 1/2 the number proposed because we could not fit them all on) garnered enthusiastic support. The vast majority of people were shocked at the thought of transforming Manitoulin from a dark sky and natural greenspace mecca into an industrial area. In what appeared to be an attempt to divert peoples attention from the real issues surrounding Indistrial Wind, Northland Power came out with a petition of their own calling for Support for Green Energy on Manitoulin and gave away cheap foam imitation turbines no doubt bound (perhaps appropriately) for the landfill.

Trade Fair Plans

rdjeffery — Sat, 28 May 2011 22:05:38 +0000

MCSEA has purchased a booth at the trade fair (Little Current Complex, June 3-5). We will unveil our new banner “Save the Great Spirit Island”. We will have a model of Manitoulin showing hundreds of Industrial Wind Turbines planned for our Island. Visitors will be able to imagine what will become of our beautiful country and channel views and our famous “dark skies”. We will have a new handout detailing 21 important facts about IWT’s and why they are WRONG for Manitoulin. We hope to have support from local elders at our booth and will be showcasing their petition which calls for NO INDUSTRIAL WIND TURBINES ON MANITOULIN ISLAND. Come and join us. Sign our petition. Our movement is growing because we have the truth on our side.

Public Meeting – May 18,2011 7pm

rdjeffery — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:31:29 +0000

Another “public information meeting” will be put on by Northland Power at the time indicated above. It will be held at the Legion in Little Current. Once again there have been significant changes announced regarding the project – changes in turbine locations and more significantly an increase in the size and height of the turbine by 20%. (Turbines are now estimated to be in the range of 500 ft. or 2 1/2 times the height of McLeans Mountain) MCSEA is urging all landowners and other concerned citizens from on and off Island to attend. MCSEA is still receiving correspondance every day from concerned citizens who have not been fully apprised of the impacts of the proposed projects or had thought it was too late to make their concerns known. It is not too late. Now is the time to speak up.

Thomas Walkom National Affairs Columnist Toronto Star Article

rdjeffery — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:35:54 +0000

How McGuinty’s windmill dreams became a nightmare

By Thomas Walkom National Affairs Columnist
Toronto Star

When Dalton McGuinty embraced wind power four years ago, it seemed he couldn’t lose. Politically, his support for this infinitely renewable form of energy put the Ontario premier firmly on the side of the environmental angels.
Even more important, McGuinty’s Liberals pitched their commitment to wind as part of a comprehensive, green industrial strategy. The government would not merely use wind turbines to generate electricity. It would also subsidize firms to build the giant machines for export. In effect, windmills would be to the new Ontario what autos were to the old — the province’s economic driver.

Critics of the premier’s ambitious schemes were dismissed as cranks and nutters infected with a not-in-my-backyard syndrome.
To ensure that these self-seekers and know-nothings didn’t interfere with the government’s bold plans, Queen’s Park stripped municipal councils of their power to regulate wind turbines.
On paper, the plan seemed a sure winner.

But that was before Dr. Bob McMurtry.

McMurtry is neither a crank nor a nutter. An orthopedic surgeon and former dean of medicine at London’s University of Western Ontario, he is part of the country’s medical and political establishment.
He’s acted as a health advisor to the former federal Liberal government. In the early 2000s, he was a key advisor to Roy Romanow’s royal commission into Medicare.

McMurtry’s brother, Roy — a Red Tory and former attorney general — was Ontario’s chief justice for 11 years.
Bob McMurtry began as a strong advocate of wind power, keen to have a turbine built on the 16-hectare Eastern Ontario farm he bought four years ago for retirement.

As he explained in a telephone interview this week, he hoped to generate his own power and sell the rest to Ontario’s electricity network.
But being a scientific sort of chap, McMurtry began by researching the issue.
What he discovered alarmed him. In particular, he ran into evidence — re-enforced by personal encounters later — that low-frequency humming associated with wind turbines may lead to chronic sleeplessness, stress and even hypertension causing heart disease for anyone living within two kilometres of a machine.

What alarmed him more was that the provincial government did not even monitor this low-frequency noise. As well, under Ontario rules, giant windmills need be no more than 550 metres from any residence.
So in 2009, he made the not terribly radical suggestion that Queen’s Park conduct a proper, arms-length study on the health effects of industrial wind turbines before authorizing any more.Failing that, he said, it should insist that new turbines be set at least two kilometres away from any dwelling.

The wind industry was outraged. Fearful of being enmeshed in red tape, wind power firms argued strongly against such a study. Their case was bolstered last May after provincial medical officer of health Dr. Arlene King issued a report saying no scientific evidence exists to show that wind turbines harm human health.

McMurtry countered that this is because no one has ever conducted a proper study — which is why he wants one.
Those interested in the dueling scientific arguments can find King’s report on the Ontario government website and McMurtry’s response at www.windvigilance.com.

But regardless of who wins the substantive debate, McGuinty’s windmill dreams have already become political nightmares.
Dozens of rural municipal councils, angered by the province’s decision to take away their regulatory authority, have passed motions of complaint.

Even the Ontario Federation of Agriculture — which represents farmers who rent their land to wind firms — has called for a moratorium on new turbines until a serious health study can be done.

The opposition Conservatives smell blood.

Trotting around through all of this is the unassuming Bob McMurtry.

He heads up a new international body of doctors and scientists investigating wind power called the Society for Wind Vigilance. Throughout small-town Ontario, he is in great demand as a speaker.
“There’s a real level of anger there,” he told me. “Rural Ontario is on fire.”