I hope that you all had an opportunity to read my e-mails of July 16 and July 3, [which are attached for ease of reference]. And perhaps you have holidayed this summer in Chatham-Kent or on Wolfe Island, amongst the wind turbines, to increase your experiences with “country life” in post-Green Energy Act Ontario.
I have been spending a lot of time recently digging through the mountain of the EDPR-prepared documents which have lots of overhead pictures, charts, numbers and soothing words. At first glance the following impression would be left with the reader….you needn’t bother reading the material as EDPR has it covered and everything is A-OKAY. If you drink the Kool-aid and take in the words “mitigate, mitigate, mitigate and avoid” which are repeatedly mentioned in the EDPR documents, you’ll continue to get a good night’s sleep. Well not being someone to take things at face value, I started to scratch the surface and here is my story of the Nation Rise Wind Project, simply explained in real words.
If you were tasked to paint a portrait of what is North Stormont, you would come up with something along these lines… a bucolic community of beautifully kept farms interspersed with villages, rural properties, rivers, conservation areas, and private woodlands with people predominantly of French, English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch, Swiss, and German descent living in peace and harmony. It’s been this way for generations. Now picture EDPR’s executive in their office suite in downtown Toronto staring at the portrait of North Stormont and facing the deal of a lifetime by way of being awarded the opportunity to erect up to 34 massive wind turbines, (some say the largest in North America at 203 meters\666 feet tall) in the Township of North Stormont and in turn sell the electricity produced by the turbines at inflated prices to the citizens of Ontario for the next 20 to 40 years. And given that Ontario doesn’t need more electricity production, most of the electricity produced by the turbines will be surplus power and as such dumped into United States’ markets at prices significantly below what EDPR will be paid. Crazy, eh!
Now along with the opportunity comes a challenge. EDPR’s challenge is to shoe-horn upwards of 34 massive turbines down country roads and onto land owned by a limited number of landowners and in the process be given the opportunity to “re-paint” the portrait of what North Stormont is and will be for the next 20-40 years. And remember EDPR’s re-painting of North Stormont will be aided and abetted by the “rules” as set in Ontario’s Green Energy Act and bank-rolled by the good citizens of Ontario. On the south side of Concession Road 10-11, (Cannamore Rd), where it intersects with County Road 32, there is a very nice and tidy home with a barn in the back. Several people on this e-mail list will recognize the place…..it’s the place with the NO TO TURBINES sign nailed onto the hydro pole in front of the house.
Now picture the big rigs rolling up from the U.S, south of Cannamore, heading north on County Road 32, hauling massive turbine parts. The big rigs come to a dead stop where Concession 10-11 connects to County Road 32. Why have the rigs stopped you may ask? Well the rigs have stopped because the rigs need to turn east (right) onto Concession Road 10-11. And the truckers know that if they attempt the turn they will flatten the house on the corner lot given the significant turning radius required. The EDPR engineers did a little problem solving and came up with a very simple solution. Let’s bulldoze away Grade A North Stormont soil south of the said home owner’s property line, on a proponent land owner’s property, and haul in crushed rock to fill the hole and more.
And voila, North Stormont joins the big league in having its first Highway 401-style turnoff ramp, sitting in the middle of farm land, connecting County Road 32 and Concession Road 10-11. By the way, the residents of North Stormont will not be able to access the turn-off ramp. Now, picture the homeowner standing in the middle of his (her) lot on a Saturday morning with his (her) coffee….to the west is County Road 32, to the north is Concession 10-11, and to the south and east the newly minted turnoff ramp. All within a stone’s throw! Nice eh!
My multi-media farmer friend…yes they are everywhere now…suggested that I add pictures for “special effect” but I am thinking that a better idea is for you to find the picture of the Highway 401-style turnoff ramp that connects County Road 32 and Concession Road 10-11. And after you find it, try and find the second Highway 401-style turnoff ramp, yes that’s right, less than 2km south, where another homeowner is awaiting the same fate. Now that you are proficient in reading the maps, my next assignment is for you to find all of the remaining areas…yes there are many more…where Grade A farmland will be bulldozed away in favour of turnoff areas to accommodate the rigs that will haul in the turbine parts and cranes that will erect and service the turbines.
Of course, all of this new “infrastructure” that will grace the township will be bankrolled by the good citizens of Ontario. As I know that politicians have a lot on their plate, I will make it easy for you to find the turnoff ramps and areas. Please go to the
following link: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Citations/nationrise/Construction+Plan+Report.pdf and go to pages 57 to 60 (Appendix A-1). R1276 and R1451 are the two homes described above. We are not talking about the wide-open prairies of Saskatchewan here, this is the Township of North Stormont where there is nary a place where you can stand on a finely kept township road and not see a residence. Each little square “R” represents a home where people now live and are soon to be among the 203m/666 feet tall Industrial Wind Turbines, complete with audible sound, low frequency noise and vibration – all at no extra cost!
Bottom line, instead of the soothing words found in the EDPR documents inferring that the transition to a “greener” township will be simple and in turn improve the quality of life for its citizens, I think a more accurate description would be along the lines of “Expropriation Without Compensation” for all but the 30 or so proponents of the 1,200 families in this immediate community. EDPR and by extension the Government of Ontario are planning to turn our green farming community into a large industrial electrical generating plant where instead of building houses where families grow, buying local and Canadian, and paying taxes to keep the countryside alive, we build a wind turbine project to help bankrupt the provincial coffers, destroy the very green countryside we pretend to protect and send hard-earned, local tax dollars to mostly foreign companies and in the process destroy any hope of local growth and all trust in government.
There is nothing at all wrong with an off-ramp to an industrial park, but North Stormont is not and has no intention in becoming an industrial power generating facility. We live, work, sleep and raise our families here! Thanks for your time and attention.
Raymond Grady, Crysler
