September 11, 2012
Ontario

Thompson repeats call for halt to wind energy development

Bullet News | huron.bulletnewscanada.ca 11 September 2012

Huron Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson is once again calling for a halt wind energy development – this time until four studies are complete.

On the first day of fall session of the Ontario Legislature, she tabled four motions to suspend industrial wind turbine development in the province until a federal health study that’s currently under way is complete and the results are published, and Ontario-based economic viability, environmental impact, and social health studies are complete.

“When the federal health study was announced, I promised that on the first day of the fall session I would stand up and table a motion for a moratorium,” Thompson said, in a press release.

“Instead, I tabled four strong motions calling upon the Liberal government to suspend wind development. It is about time they stood up for the people of rural Ontario who are concerned with the health, economic and environmental impacts of industrial wind turbines.”

In July, the federal government announced a health study to consider the relationship between wind turbine noise and health effects – both anecdotal and measurable – on people living near wind farms.

The study will focus on an initially targeted sample size of 2,000 dwellings selected from as many as a dozen wind farms in Canada. In addition to taking physical measurements from participants, such as blood pressure, investigators will conduct face-to-face interviews and take noise measurements inside and outside of some homes to validate sound modelling.

The federal health agency, in collaboration with Statistics Canada, expects to deliver findings of the study in 2014.

In December 2011, Thompson tabled a private members motion calling for a moratorium on wind energy development until third-party social, physical and economic health, and environmental studies have been completed. Her motion was defeated in March 2012.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/09/11/thompson-repeats-call-for-halt-to-wind-energy-development/