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Open Letter to the Premier

Steve Campbell

Steve Campbell

Ms. Wynne, I’m sure it will come as a surprise to you that Prince Edward County residents are angry and frustrated to the point of explosion. I assume this is surprising information, considering you have evoked our democratic right to voice our opinion concerning proper location of Industrial Wind Turbines, and thus take control of our own future.
As a column writer and a vocal proponent of our County lifestyle, I would like to state my purpose upfront: The people of the County insist on the cancellation of two wind projects poised to destroy our south shore.
Couldn’t be simpler, and sources tell me that you and the Ministries of Energy and Environment have that ability in your hands.

Our concerns are explosive on a number of fronts: the removal of our rights, the override of our elected municipal council’s decision to be “not a willing host”, the cost effectiveness and necessity for IWTs (our local solar manufacturing company claims to already be supplying four times the electrical power we consume here in the County through solar farms alone) and, of course, the destruction of turtles, bats, birds (in a designated Important Bird Area) and other wildlife, and the removal of their feeding, breeding and resting sources in an extremely fragile ecosystem.
In short: You don’t save the world by destroying wildlife and corrupting the land.

The MOE should know this, but chooses instead to violate your government’s endangered species act to fulfill its own selfish purposes. Or perhaps just following your orders, and not asking questions.
It’s tragic that local naturalists and environmentalists – as eager as you are to fight carbon emissions – have been forced to wage a battle with Ministry of Environment – which pretends to be a protector of all of the above concerns we have expressed. The hypocrisy of your government is appalling!
You pretend to pay attention to our arguments, but only by your rules, through legal means, and with an extremely limited field of allowable objections.
And, of course, your so-called studies on health effects and wildlife devastation – bought and paid for – narrow the field even further, making claims for a utopic future which are not substantiated by evidence.
(Your researchers – if you have any – are so focused on ‘the plan’ that they have neglected to consider other less-invasive and more-advanced technologies, which are burgeoning in other countries. Check Tesla, and Lockheed Martin’s research on nuclear fusion (not fission) – a generator that can fit in the back of a pickup truck, and a future of eliminating nuclear waste.)
I suspect your ministries know little about power generation, conservation and preservation, and lots about how to sign expensive deals with corporations.
Everyone knows you will win your ‘fixed’ game in court … after all, you’re using our own tax money to fight us. You’re just counting on having way deeper pockets than us, and I witnessed your lawyers in the first ERT in Demorestville stalling and re-asking questions several times, in hopes of running up our legal bills. A David and Goliath tale if I ever saw one!
I also know that you want to fulfill Dalton McGuinty’s Green Dream, and leave a legacy as a world leader. Here you will be remembered as a draconian fascist/communist (we haven’t decided on that yet) bureaucracy who holds their ill-conceived edicts above the wants, needs, sensitivities and sensibilities of Prince Edward County.
It’s worthy of note that I hear talk of civil disobedience, protests and possible vigilante action here, should you proceed. This is not a threat, I just listen to my people – something you may wish to consider.
I see possible action of Caledonia proportions, with coverage by local, metro and national press – which will make both of us look like crazed fools in the eyes of the country.
Though “unwilling host” is a rather benign term, I’m afraid you might find out how completely unwilling we can be.
I strongly suggest you abandon your plans for destruction of our south shore at Ostrander Point and through the recently-approved White Pines Development.
This is not Oakville and Mississauga … we are not concerned and disgruntled.
This is our land, and our lifestyle, and the feeling here is that nothing will make us give it up for the legacy dream of someone else, miles away, who only understands urban concerns and considers rural Ontario to be a vast exploitable wasteland.
You are not good stewards of our land – we are.
You may have convinced the electorate of the GTA to vote for you but, here in Worthless Land, you are considered reckless, insensitive and cold-hearted in addressing the concerns of your constituents, and those of our MPP Todd Smith, who has spoken on this topic many times. Our Mayor was also furious with the approval of WPD, especially considering the financial resources of County people are severely tapped by the continuous onslaught of your lawyers in the fight against the Gilead project.
In effect, you have made us all powerless against your bulldozers, and this is not something that sits well in a community with strong Loyalist roots.
Putting your brainpower into the environmental damage you are about to cause, and the lifespan of outdated technology – and your heart behind the damage you have already caused in the fracturing of our local community, and ignoring our concerns about health and property values – would go a long way to showing some degree of compassion for the needs of rural Ontario.
Cancelling these projects would transform our perception of you from ‘despotic ruler’ to ‘visionary leader’.
Sadly, I fear my words will mean nothing to you, and you will simply put on your blindfold, put your fingers in your ears, and wait for the Big Bang.
But single-minded pursuit of destruction of land, life and communities does not a good government make.
Please give this – and us – some consideration.

Filed Under: News from Everywhere ElseSteve Campbell

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  1. Olmanonthemtn says:

    hey Alexis i’m sure you’re into all alternative green energy options here is one that was developed in the 50’s but didn’t produce weapons grade plutonium that the US wanted . The Chinese are very involved with its development the source of fuel is huge the negative byproducts are minimal it uses Thorium vs Uranium

    Thorium Power Canada Inc.
    http://www.thoriumpowercanada.com/
    Through a partnership with DBI, the company’s thorium reactor design provides a nuclear alternative to fossil fuel consumption, taking advantage of abundant …

  2. Olmanonthemtn says:

    WOW GEA ideologues how do you spell sanctimonious, push its agenda regardless of impact and value. People who believe we need to devolve from fossil fuels but are skeptical of the GEA and the quality of its implementation are pilloried these skeptics should be beguiled by the iconic branding of IWTs as green icons and forget as the auditor general asked why weren’t alternatives considered

  3. Marnie says:

    Maybe our ancestors loved this land more than you do Judy. Progress is one thing, this will be devastation.

  4. Gary says:

    Easy to sluff it off as paranoia. So all these people and their ancestors are borderline crazy you suggest. Why don’t they stick these monstrosities which themselves have a huge carbon footprint along the 401? Easier transmission and the soil is already salt laden. No, let’s pick a spot that would impact birds, wildlife and plants the most. What do you call people who make those types of decisions Judy?

  5. judy kennedy says:

    the paranoia surrounding wind power is contagious among the easily influenced and credulous. No doubt some of those people had ancestors who were also afraid of telephone lines and hydro towers.

  6. Olmanonthemtn says:

    ON FUSION FUTURE
    From University of Washington
    http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/10/08/uw-fusion-reactor-concept-could-be-cheaper-than-coal/

    From MIT
    http://mitei.mit.edu/calendar/smaller-and-sooner-accelerating-fusion-energys-development-technology-and-science-innovatio
    Smaller and Sooner: Accelerating Fusion Energy’s …
    http://www.psfc.mit.edu/MITEI_May2015_Whyte.pdf

    Cached
    Smaller and Sooner: Accelerating Fusion Energy’s Development with. Technology and Science Innovation. Dennis Whyte. MIT Plasma Science and Fusion ..

    This reactor is currently under construction and will be completed by 2019
    from wiki the ITER also has its own site for info

    ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and Latin for “the way”) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject, which is currently building the world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor adjacent to theCadarache facility in the south of France.[1] The ITER project aims to make the long-awaited transition from experimental studies ofplasma physics to full-scale electricity-producing fusion power plants.The project is funded and run by seven member entities — the European Union, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The EU, as host party for the ITER complex, is contributing about 45 percent of the cost, with the other six parties contributing approximately 9 percent each.[2][3][4]
    The ITER fusion reactor has been designed to produce 500 megawatts of output power while needing 50 megawatts to operate.[5]Thereby the machine aims to demonstrate the principle of producing more energy from the fusion process than is used to initiate it, something that has not yet been achieved in any fusion reactor. Construction of the ITER Tokamak complex started in 2013[6] and the building costs are now over US$14 billion as of June 2015, some 3 times the original figure.[7] The facility is expected to finish its construction phase in 2019 and will start commissioning the reactor that same year and initiate plasma experiments in 2020 with full deuterium-tritium fusion experiments starting in 2027.[8][9] If ITER becomes operational, it will become the largest magnetic confinementplasma physics experiment in use, surpassing the Joint European Torus. The first commercial demonstration fusion power plant, namedDEMO, is proposed to follow on from the ITER project.[10]

  7. Alex Oliveira. says:

    Lockheed martins site has no timeline, estimated time of completion, nor any real concrete data to show how far they are in their R&D. Vague terms like “in the future we’ll….” or ” Our goal is to…..” dont mean its coming down the pipe in the next 500 years. Like the speed of light you can get as close to fusion as you want but it wont happen without some previously unknown property of physics being discovered or explained. The other site is simply a spam site used to drag someone to one of 48 randomly generated sites based on the term “Fusion power”. So yeah I stand by my claim that, the idea fusion power, will be viable before 2200 is unfounded.

  8. baysider says:

    It is not wpd, s fault that they will be making that money, it is the government’s fault.If you owned that company you would be right in there.Same as solar power at 55 kwt. That’s is why I have solar panels.

  9. Chris Keen says:

    @baysider: Companies like wpd are not constructing turbines for the good of your health. They are building them to make a profit. Period. WE pay for the construction of every turbine and solar panel erected on Ontario in the price Hydro One pays these companies for the power they produce. You’re right – Hydro one does not have a cent invested in this type of power production you/we do! When this unneeded power is then sold at below cost you/we pay again to the tune of millions of dollars a month!

  10. baysider says:

    I care about my health and other types of power are not .clean. Also every one is complaining about hydro costs but with wind power hydro one has not got a cent involved in the production, and some in the delivery which we pay no matter what source of generation it is.

  11. Olmanonthemtn says:

    the loading of the poll in favour of yes could be intrepeted if you don’t favour IWT’s you favour killing people may influence a person to vote multiple times on multiple computers

  12. Sam says:

    Old Man, that is what I said, one vote per computer. The No side can be as equally manipulated as the Yes side by one person voting on multiple computers. It is obviously not a perfect system. A house with two people and one computer only gets one vote, but a house with one person and 2 computers gets two votes. However the imperfections work equally for both sides. Ultimately, if the results had been reversed and the No side had 80% of the vote then I am quite sure that the turbine opponents would have put it up on a pedestal for all to witness. (similar to what you tried to do with the Green Quinte poll and its 9 votes).

  13. Olmanonthemtn says:

    Sam I did try it with 2 computers the poll took the first response 2 days ago and took a response from my second computer today. Many households have multiple computers (e.g.. desk top, laptop, tablet belonging to both adults and children).

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