South Marysburgh wind turbine vote Saturday
Administrator | Jul 09, 2012 | Comments 20
The South Marysburgh Mirror is hosting a vote on the question of industrial wind turbines, Saturday, July 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Milford Town Hall.
“I was stunned to learn that this is the first vote of its kind in Ontario, if not Canada,” said Steve Ferguson, editor. “Just like any vote, the results could go either way. What I do know, and the reason The Mirror is undertaking this initiative, is that it is important to know the result so we can understand how the community feels.
“I cannot recall a time when I have felt such a mixture of emotions as I do now about our provincial government and the stripping of our rights through the Green Energy Act. With the stroke of a pen, it eliminated any democratic input from municipal governments concerning an issue it knew would affect hundreds of thousands of people, particularly throughout rural Ontario.”
The vote, he says, is not about harnessing or not harnessing the wind to generate electricity; “the vote is about whether it should or shouldn’t be done in the South Marysburgh community using Industrial Wind Turbines.”
At the end of the day, he said, “this vote is all about the future and values of our community.”
Voting will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 14 at the Milford Town Hall, 3076 Cty Rd 10, Milford. If you are unable to vote in person, you may designate a proxy. Identification with name and property address is mandatory. Driver’s licence preferred; or the address portion of a property tax bill, an income tax assessment or a utility bill. One vote per person, not one vote per property in the case of multiple property ownership.
Filed Under: Local News
Here you go,Doris – from the South Marysburgh Mirror website:
“These are the results of today’s turbine vote at the Milford Town Hall.
Total number of registered voters: 542
The one and only question on the ballot was:
Do you want industrial wind turbines installed in South Marysburgh like the ones proposed by wpd Canada and Gilead Power for their projects near Milford and on the south shore?
Total number of ‘Yes’ votes: 51
Total number of ‘No’ votes: 489
Total number of spoiled ballots: 2”
The vote results have been posted on the Mirror’s website at southmarysburghmirror.com
I hope they will post the results tonight
Beth, I am pretty sure that not everyone who opposes the industrialization of our globally rare and valued natural heritage was at that meeting.I was not able to attend myself, and I live in South Marysburgh.
Pretty sure not everybody there was from South Marysburgh.
I wonder if the comments made in Thursday,s editorial in County Weekly are expressing the opinion of our local publisher or if this is the opinions of an editor at large who does not live here. Needless to say , I,m not sure this paper has it.s finger on the pulse on this one and I think 400 to 500 people is one helluva big handful of protestors considering the entire population of South Marysburgh is 868
Here is a live-cam nest camera in a Great Blue Heron nest at Cornell University. The fledglings are just about ready to leave the nest. As you look at this, imagine a 450 foot Industrial Wind Turbine whirling in the background!
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=2433
This is a Red-Tailed Hawk nest – also at Cornell. Beautiful.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=2422&ac=ac
It is a foregone conclusion by the Ontario gov’t many eons ago that there will be wind turbines throughout this province.We will have to throw ourselves down in front of the big rigs(as we did in British Columbia to cancel logging of ancient rain forests) and die for the cause when they roll in to begin building wind turbines.I hope everyone realizes this.That, as I see it, is the only solution to stop the erection of wind turbines in the County at this point.Hopefully it works.
great comment Mark-about anti wind
Donna just like any election everyone should vote yes or no–do they WANT IWT’S
tHEY WILL BE ABLE TO TELL WHAT PERCENTAGE OF sOUTH marysburgh people voted
I am sure the pro AWT’s will vote unless they are afraid to show how few of them there are
To help Donna:
1. To show the amount of support for Industrial Wind Turbines.
2. It is the verdict by local residents.
Oh and I don’t think anyone is anti wind. Nothing wrong with the wind.
1. Why should wind energy proponents bother voting?
2. Just because the anti-winds flood the polls and vote NO, doesn’t mean that it’s the right decision.
Real Estate agents say they can not sell a property on Wolfe Island and even thought there are no turbines YET in the county some agents say that people are deferring their decision to come here until they see what happens
The “Mirror” is delivered to every mailbox in SM and is also available at the Hicks General Store in Milford.That combined with other advertising and a notify your neighbor blitz we should see a good turnout. I am emailing and phoning my neighbors who are not full time residents.It’s only fair…If turbines affect property values negatively then all taxpayers of SM should be notified.Our properties are our investment now that will someday be our nest egg for retirement.Bird kills, health issues aside,,property values will hit us all. I think the Real Estate agents would agree.
You are probably correct–voters lists are not as accesible to the public as they used to be–the privacy act
I doubt that they would be allowed to use an official voters’ list. I really don’t see the point, unless it encourages people to stop arguing–which I doubt.
If they use the voters list for South that was used in the last municapal election and cross off the people as they vote, then they should get a good cross section of the vote
They need to have someone outside the township to act as returning officer, a completely unbaised person who is aware of voting procedure
Very much looking forward to both voting and seeing the results either way.
Sound a tad nervous. And just what is a “proper cross section of residents”? It’s possible there isn’t a real cross section at all.
I hope that this pole is well advertised and a proper cross section of residents attend. I will be interested in seeing the results.
This a good initative that the Mirror is undertaking and the results will be interesting
It would ne good to have at least a couple of scrutiners
one from CCSAGE and one from the sustainability group