Representatives from several Ontario communities, where wind turbine projects are currently in the approval process, were set to be at Queen’s Park on Monday, April 30.Three MPPs were set to deliver a petition containing over 3,000 signatures.
The petition asks the Government of Ontario to follow its own rules for health and safety requirements for the wind turbines and is related to the creation of ‘transition provisions’ by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) in the Renewable Energy Approval process.
“The MOECC recognized that the previous requirements for turbine noise modelling were inadequate and they revised them,” stated Bonnie Rowe, spokesperson for Dutton Dunwich Opponents of Wind Turbines (DDOWT), whose citizen group has applied for a judicial review of the transition provisions.
“The noise modelling requirements are important to protect health and safety for people living near the turbines but now, the government has allowed the developers for the new projects to use the old ones — we think that’s wrong. If the government sets rules, especially for health, then everyone should have to follow them, no exceptions.”
Community members traveled for hours to watch the petition presentation.
“These power generators emit a range of noise and can be very disruptive for the citizens forced to live near them,” stated Denise Shephard, spokesperson for the Wallaceburg Area Wind Concerns group.
“We believe regulations set by the government to protect citizens should be followed.”
From eastern Ontario was Margaret Benke, representing two citizen groups, Concerned Citizens of North Stormont and Save the Nation.
“The MOECC does not have a good record of monitoring and correcting wind turbine projects that are not compliant with noise regulations,” Benke said.
“There are currently thousands of unresolved noise complaints from existing wind power projects. We want to ensure that rules are followed before these huge installations are built, to prevent non-compliance issues.”
MPPs presenting the petitions Monday were: Jeff Yurek, from Elgin-Middlesex-London, Monte McNaughton, from Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and Jim McDonell, MPP for Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry.
