Arran-Elderslie showing courage and leadership 

In response to the article by Mary Golem, “Gloves off on wind turbines,” let me commend the courage of Arran-Elderslie council in taking a stance against the ill-conceived and costly wind power initiative that is being forced down the throats of Canadians by our provincial and federal governments.

Wind power has been tried in Europe and has failed to come even close to living up to its promise as a viable alternative energy source. Denmark, the leading proponent over the last decade, stopped putting wind turbines in several years ago and is building coal-fired plants to meet electricity demand.

Wind is unreliable, costly and has not been independently proven to be safe from either a health or environmental perspective. In my opinion government is pushing this to appear “green,” and developers are getting rich off the government subsidies (i. e. our taxpayer dollars).

Any intelligent, forward thinking people would support a viable long-term renewable energy initiative, but wind turbines are not the solution. Let’s learn from the lessons of our European cousins before it is too late, and not throw away precious dollars that could yield greater environmental benefits elsewhere.

It is reassuring that a reported 40 Ontario municipalities have considered this issue and chosen to support the Arran- Elderslie bylaw. I hope that those municipalities who have yet to do so will research the facts and conclude this wind energy initiative is a mistake. There are no truly independent studies to discount the adverse health effects reported by residents close to the installations.

Hopefully all municipal councils will have the wisdom and courage to protect the people and challenge our provincial and federal governments to produce the scientific proof in support of their assertions on this issue.

The comments by Charles Edey (president of Leader Resources Services Corp.) reflect his obvious bias. He says the Arran-Elderslie bylaw was designed to be insurmountable. One could say the same for Bill 150 which enabled the Government of Ontario to bypass public objections and give the green light to developers like Mr. Edey and their wind turbine projects. And Mr. Edey’s statement about taking this to the Supreme Court (despite his denial) is a rather obvious threat. He knows that the cost of going to the Supreme Court is often enough to make municipalities throw in the towel and give developers what they want, since they (municipalities) have limited funds in their budget for such legal action.

This is where the municipalities from across Ontario, with support from their association (AMO), need to get together to contest this to the highest courts if necessary. I urge those sitting on the fence and other municipalities across Canada to step forward and support this bylaw, or initiate similar ones.

We need to see more of the courage and leadership displayed by Arran-Elderslie council to protect the rights of the people they serve.

Curtis Anderson
Markdale