For Immediate Release:
June 6, 2011
Simcoe – As government was preparing to shut down the Legislature early, Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett ensured they heard local demand for a wind power moratorium before they hit the exits.
As the end of the Spring session drew near Barrett rose a number of times to read in petitions calling for, “a moratorium on wind development”, as well as a revision of the Green Energy Act.
“We’ve now got over 2,000 signatures on petitions”, Barrett noted on May 17th. “Whereas industrial wind turbine developments have raised concerns among citizens over health, safety and property values; Whereas the Green Energy Act allows wind turbine developments to bypass meaningful public input and municipal approvals;
“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows: Revise the Green Energy Act to allow full public input and municipal approvals on all industrial wind farm developments and that a moratorium on wind development be declared until an independent, epidemiological study is completed into the health and environmental impacts of industrial wind turbines…I’ve signed the petition.”
Over the past month, Barrett took a number of opportunities to read the petitions in and highlight the fact that while government continues to turn a deaf ear to a mounting municipal and local resident concern over wind turbines, he and Leader Tim Hudak are listening.
Barrett and Hudak announced in May plans to restore transparency and competition to Ontario’s energy mix by shutting down the shady Samsung deal, and ending the FIT program.
“Even Dalton McGuinty admits the largest contributing factor to rising hydro bills over the next several years will be his FIT and Samsung projects – it’s time to slam on the brakes,” stated Barrett. “We simply cannot allow unaffordable green energy rates under McGuinty’s FIT program – or the secret Samsung deal imposition of hundreds of wind turbines on Haldimand County – to continue.”
Dalton McGuinty signed the sole-sourced $7-billion Samsung deal in January 2010 – he still refuses to tell Ontario families, or even key decision makers in the energy sector, what he committed Ontario to.
Barrett pointed out that he and his caucus colleagues value renewables as a part of Ontario’s diverse supply mix, but they must be at rates that Ontario families and businesses can afford.
Meantime, Barrett and Hudak have repeatedly committed to restoring municipal powers of decision-making stripped away by the Green Energy Act.
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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: (416) 325-8404,
(519) 428-0446 or 1-800-903-8629