PEC has every reason to dread turbine project
Administrator | Mar 26, 2012 | Comments 7
On March 22, WPD Canada Corp. held a “community consultation” on its White Pines Wind Project that restricted public access to information.
WPD declined a proposal from the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County (APPEC) for a change in the format of the open house in Picton. It refused to have experts speak publically to all County residents and answer questions supplied in advance as well as supplementary questions asked from the floor.
Nor did WPD provide full disclosure of the health risks of the White Pines project. It declined APPEC’s request to include the health information legal correspondence sent to WPD by Mr. Eric Gillespie, APPEC’s lawyer, on November 7, 2011.
Instead, APPEC members and others at the event were expected to wait patiently for semi-qualified company spokespersons so they could ask their questions one-on-one. This not only wasted everyone’s time but limited the amount and quality of information WPD provided.
Many attendees came away frustrated at what was essentially a public relations exercise which meets minimum compliance with the Ministry of Environment’s regulation. The purpose of the meeting was really to control public access to information and to present only the wind industry’s self-justifications.
WPD’s disdain for County residents, however, was already evident from the construction work it began in advance of any public meeting or ministerial approval. It has bulldozed survey roads to the proposed turbine sitings, destroying habitat within the South Shore Important Bird Area. The roads are also presumably intended to persuade everyone that resistance is futile.
WPD seems intent on being the worst of corporate citizens. This is a company that doesn’t answer questions openly, doesn’t provide requested information, and doesn’t recognize community opposition. Prince Edward County has every reason to dread an industrial project developed and operated by WPD.
Henri Garand
APPEC chair
Filed Under: Letters and Opinion
@SAB – I posted the figures. You’ll find them in the comments section – March 23 – 1:42PM – in the article “County Fee and Charges …”. The whole list is at the Ontario Ministry of Finance website.
SAB: It wasn’t me, but I believe that the info was published in a comment on this site. The list is produced by the province and is called the Sunshine List.
@Gary Mooney
I believe it was you who posted the salaries of municipal employees who earn over 100,000.00
I mentioned this to an excounsellor, who could not believe these figures…..would you be kind enough to post the figures again, so I could show this gentleman..
Thanking you inadvance
Gary there probably are not any medical doctos around anymore who believe IWT’s are not harmful to health
David I think that feeling of helplessness is the worst of all feelings–You object and object and no one listens
Doris, my mistake — the doctor was a PhD in molucular biology, not a medical doctor and, as such, is not qualified to distringuish between psychosomatic and pysiological illness in patients — in fact, isn’t qualified to diagnose patients at all.
Just look at their map of South Marysburgh and look at how divisive this project is going to be and do they care,
Not one bit. A gentleman I talked with had purchased apiece of property beside the lake and was going to build on it and now there is a turbine some rediculous distance beside his property. He asked him if there was anything they could do and they told him no. There is no room here for any colaboration or flexibility. It seems that it set in stone.
They apparently had some doctor there that said if anyone had problems they were all phsyosomatic . Our own Dr McMutury has evidence of many people experiencing very real and grave problems. Who should we believe our Order ofCanada doctor or someone they produced.
What dream world do they live in if they expect long time residents and people who have purchased land here to believe that these IWT`s are little harmless toys
Real Estate will go down and so will the tax base as people apply to MPAC for a reduction in assessment. WHAT A MESS
Henri, quite frankly, nothing more then what they, the representatives of WPD offered, should have been expected. This whole process for approval is fraudulent and disingenuous. Interestingly, this is even given legal status by government. It is a sad state of human affairs which creates distrust and a sense of helplessness, even more so when members of the community, although few in number despite their proclamations otherwise, reinforce this blatant disrespect for the genuine fears of their neighbors. And I emphasize to them that these are their neighbors and their actions in this respect will not be forgotten.