For immediate release:
March 9, 2012
QUEEN’S PARK – A class act and chilling.
That’s how Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett described the silent protest of a busload of about 30 people from Haldimand and Norfolk who turned their backs on MPP’s as a Liberal-NDP voting bloc defeated a PC motion for a moratorium on wind power.
Earlier in the afternoon, the local crowd had been welcomed to the Legislature by Barrett as they walked in.
“We welcome Haldimand and Norfolk constituents, here by bus—they’re coming into the visitors’ gallery now—including Ernie King, Stephana Johnston and others too numerous to mention, here to support legislating a moratorium on further industrial wind power.”
Soon after, Barrett was up again to deliver a Members Statement questioning why the McGuinty-commissioned Drummond Report was not allowed to consider the impacts of wind:
“…It appears Mr. Drummond has failed to mention the low-hanging fruit that’s costing Ontario billions: the Green Energy Act. He also failed to address the Samsung fiasco. As one of my constituents wrote me, ‘Think that this alone could almost solve the deficit.’” Barrett informed the Legislature. “My constituents—many are here today—want to know who directed this extreme oversight: 700 pages, not a word about industrial wind turbines.”
The statement was followed a few minutes later with Barrett’s reading in of a petition for government to, “support Huron–Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson’s private member’s motion which calls for a moratorium on all industrial wind turbine development until a third party health and environmental study has been completed.”
To the disappointment of many in the gallery and the Official Opposition benches, that motion was later voted down by the McGuinty-NDP voting bloc.
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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: (416) 325-8404,
(519) 428-0446 or 1-800-903-8629
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO OFFICAL HANSARD
Thursday 8 March 2012
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Mr. Toby Barrett: Speaker, I’ve been through Mr. McGuinty’s Drummond report many times, and it appears Mr. Drummond has failed to mention the low-hanging fruit that’s costing Ontario billions: the Green Energy Act. He also failed to address the Samsung fiasco. As one of my constituents wrote me, “Think that this alone could almost solve the deficit.”
My constituents—many are here today—want to know who directed this extreme oversight: 700 pages, not a word about industrial wind turbines.
Parker Gallant, vice-president of Wind Concerns Ontario, has noticed as well that the Drummond report is disappointingly low-key on the massive amount of waste going on in Ontario’s renewable energy sector. How can this be, after Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter’s devastating report on the subject just a few months ago?
A February 25 editorial in the Toronto Sun sums up the shortfall nicely: “By contrast, the Drummond report on electricity and green energy often reads as if it was written by government bureaucrats defending the indefensible.”
This government owes an answer to the people of this province who are being adversely affected by this government’s knee-jerk decisions. There are families in my riding, Speaker, who are paying mortgages and they’re also renting safe houses to escape the horrors of windmills.
Drummond is a Liberal government commissioned report. Taxpayers funded McGuinty’s Drummond report. They deserve an accounting on this, Speaker.
PETITIONS
WIND TURBINES
Mr. Toby Barrett: A petition that’s addressed to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
“Whereas residents of Ontario want a moratorium on all further industrial wind turbine development until a third party health and environmental study has been completed; and
“Whereas people in Ontario living within close proximity to industrial wind turbines have reported negative health effects; we need to study the physical, social, economic and environmental impacts of wind turbines; and
“Whereas Ontario’s largest farm organization, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, and the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario have called for a suspension of industrial wind turbine development until the serious shortcomings can be addressed, and the Auditor General confirmed wind farms were created in haste and with no planning; and
“Whereas there have been no third party health and environmental studies done on industrial wind turbines, and the Auditor General confirmed there was no real plan for green energy in Ontario and wind farms were constructed in haste;
“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:
“That the Liberal government support Huron–Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson’s private member’s motion which calls for a moratorium on all industrial wind turbine development until a third party health and environmental study has been completed.”
Speaker, I support this petition, support the names on it, and affix my name.