Democracy crumbling under Green Energy Act

Editor:

As publisher of On The Bay and a resident of Clearview, my magazine and I have been writing about the impact of industrial wind turbines on our community for ten years.

And now, we are at the tail end of a long appeal process which has pitted local townships, counties, airports and residents against the ill-advised plan to build eight 50-storey high turbines in Clearview. The wind farm in question between Collingwood and Creemore, has led to an Ontario Tribunal hearing that has heard expert witnesses testify that the damage, environmentally, to endangered wildlife and local ground water sources can be permanent and irreversible if the turbine farm proceeds.

But even scarier is the cost to human health. Witness after expert witness testified that planes will crash and people will die if the turbines are not removed from near the Collingwood Airport as well as from the smaller private airport just west of Stayner.

The decision by the Tribunal will come down in August and all of us who live here will learn of our fate.

But completely ignored under the government’s appeal process, is the consideration of the economic impact of the turbine farm on the value of real estate for landowners and the impact on local businesses that rely on those residents for scores of products and services.

Truth is, under two successive Ontario Liberal governments, the deeply flawed Green Energy Act has seen local democracy crumble, taking away our voice and our right to decide what is acceptable in our community.

Bottom line, the Kathleen Wynn’s Liberals have stacked the deck against us, and all of rural Ontario.

Jeff Shearer,

Nottawa.