Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Stronger opposition to wind farms


Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is facing a new organization of municipalities opposed to wind farms.

Wynne’s predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, rammed green energy down the throats of municipalities, denying them the right to place planning-act restrictions on wind farms and solar-energy.

As a result, they have been placed wherever companies want them, regardless of municipal official plans.

“The implementation and expansion of renewable energy (industrial-scale wind turbines and large solar power projects) has developed to the point that it has caused hydro costs to increase, caused a division between rural and urban municipalities, and caused the citizens of Ontario to lose faith in democracy,” says Ron Higgins, Mayor of North Frontenac.

The Ontario Multi-Municipal Group organization was formed at the last meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) after 115 municipalities, or 25 percent of all municipalities in Ontario, passed resolutions demanding that municipalities get final say in the siting of renewable power projects.


“We are now speaking out on behalf of all those communities,” Higgins says.