September 28, 2010
By Jeff Parkinson
It’s no secret that the McGuinty Liberals have declared war on traditional power generating facilities such as the coal fired plant at Nanticoke, and that they’re hyping going “green” as an investment in our futures, but in their effort to appease environmentalists, are they going to go too far?
Plans to place wind farms and solar farms across the province have been talked about for years, but steps are being taken to make that a reality now and one may be coming closer to home than we think.
McGuinty is hell bent on spending a fortune installing monstrous windmills that will raise our hydro rates astronomically, and he’s got his eye on Haldimand County. Unlike many other municipalities who have passed resolutions calling for a moratorium until these machines are proven safe, Haldimand has set aside a reported 40,000 acres of land for Dalton to use.
There is no shortage of vacant land in Haldimand. The Liberals have ensured this by allowing development to be brought to a halt by Native extremists, but what McGuinty most needs is Crown land.
Renewable resouce?
Some Haldimand residents who live next to such land have learned that they can do nothing to stop wind farms from being built next door because much of it is Crown land. Complaining to the County will do nothing as they have no authority over the land, and trying to express concerns to the McGuinty Liberals has certainly not yielded positive results for residents with far more serious concerns than a windmill.
Rumour has it that they may put a few of these on the Douglas Creek Estates which is a thought provoking idea to the say the least. It became Crown land when McGuinty paid millions to buy the property in 2006 in order to circumvent a court order to remove the Native occupiers.
It’s a big chunk of fully serviced property that’s sitting idle and in limbo, and were it not for the fact that hundreds of families live on the border of DCE, it might have been a good place to build a wind farm. The fact remains however that those people do live right next door, and the impact these have on the health of their neighbours is hotly disputed at best.
Wind farms have destroyed the housing market in places like Wolf Island and Clear Creek, and there’s no reason to believe that one would be more widely accepted in Caledonia. Sutton Realty Group recently tracked the sale of 600 homes near windmills, and concluded that any home within 3kms would sell for an average of $48000 less than a home outside the 3km range.
Green Energy
Why is this problem? Because they have not been proven safe. They shred bats and birds attempting to fly by, they have been labelled a potential health hazard by the World Health Organization, and they have been known to violently self destruct in places like Holland and Germany where they have been in use for many years. One only needs to quickly search Youtube to find footage of them catching on fire or flying apart.
Some are no doubt thinking that it’s the Natives who control what ultimately happens to DCE, but there’s no reason to think they would object. Six Nations recently signed a deal with Samsung to produce green energy that will make them millions of dollars.
This shows that they have no aversion to green energy or to money and plenty of both would be made by a wind farm on the DCE. By cutting Six Nations in on the revenue, McGuinty would gain political points by proudly telling everyone that he’s supporting the Native community.
If the lives of a few families are destroyed in the process, Dalton can just say that it’s a “complex situation” in Caledonia as he has in the past, and the majority of the populace would believe him.
Personally I think windmills are suave. They’re fascinating to look at and wind farms make for a nice scenic drive, but I don’t want to live anywhere near one. Do you?
JeffParkinson.ca 
I’d much rather see that than the old barricade with no trespassing signs and warrior flags on our “crown land” which is how it sits today.