January 8, 2019
Ontario

North Stormont loses appeal to squash wind turbine project

By Jeff Slack | Jan 7, 2019 | www.ottawamatters.com

Residents south of Ottawa are disappointed and concerned about the approval of a windmill farm, after the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal ruled that the Concerned Citizens of North Stormont failed to provide accurate evidence of harm.

“[We need to] prove the project will cause [problems] – not may cause, not maybe involved with, not maybe implicated with,” says Margaret Benke, Spokesperson for Concerned Citizens of North Stormont.

She tells 1310 NEWS they had originally thought if they had declared themselves an “unwilling host,” the project would have been halted.

“That was the supposed point of it, but that was in fact not what happened,” said Benke. “We were told that if you didn’t have any abutting land owner support or agreement, municipal support or agreement, prior first nations agreement, that if they didn’t have extra points there, the project would not go ahead.”

The reason Benke believes the former Ontario government changed their tune about this because of the scale of the project, saying that the government told them those were only “guidelines.”

The project will introduce 33 turbines to the community with a minimal distance of 550 metres from the centre of a home to the centre of a turbine.

Benke says the group will exercise its right to appeal the decision of the tribunal, hoping the new Conservative government will listen.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/01/08/north-stormont-loses-appeal-to-squash-wind-turbine-project/