February 12, 2011
Quebec

An ill wind

Ingrid Peritz, The Globe and Mail, 12 February 2011

Amid the cupids, another kind of lawn ornament is appearing outside homes in Saint-Valentin: protest signs.

Mayors, farmers and a number of residents in the rural municipalities between Montreal and the U.S. border are trying to stop the arrival of wind farms on their agricultural lands.

A five-mayor coalition is calling on the provincial government to halt two windfarm projects in the region, which they say will be a blight on Quebec’s agricultural landscape.

“This area is the garden of Quebec, some the best farmland in the province,” said Gérard Dutil, a mayor who heads a coalition trying to stop the wind farms. “This place will look like a cemetery. All we’ll see are turbines looming up 450 feet. The public is against this. They’re angry.”

Saint-Valentin has approved a $200-million project for 25 wind turbines; however, some of the massive windmills, as well as the transmission lines to carry their generated electricity, would spill into neighbouring municipalities.

Saint-Valentin Mayor Pierre Chamberland says he supports the wind-farm project in his town, which was approved in 2009 by his predecessor, but remains open to withdrawing support if new evidence of negative effects is presented.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/02/12/an-ill-wind-3-2/