November 23rd - A great letter worth sharing

Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 8:27 AM
Subject: Bill Murdoch's resolution



Mr Tabuns




I met you briefly in London last spring at the standing committee proceedings for Bill 150. I have read the Hansard notes of Thurs. Oct. 29/09 regarding Mr. Bill Murdoch's resolution requesting an investigation in to the health issues relating to Industrial Wind Turbines.




Despite many people's attempts to inform you regarding the health issue, it is quite apparent that you, like many of the green conscious, have decided that the regular rural taxpayer do not form a part of the environment and therefore must be excluded in your thought process as having any kind of priority.




You talk about the people in Mississauga having to fight the gas-fired power plant in their area, but yet you fail to connect that this is the result of this gov't tactics to replace coal generation. If you had checked the OPA website you will see that wind from 2005 to 2013 represents only 15% of the total planned new MW while NG is 55%. I ask you Mr. Tabuns with these kind of numbers, has wind really replaced coal especially when one considers that 15% of wind will never translate into said amount of real capacity needed by a modern society.




You pay lip service to a recounting of your work on the standing committee which allowed you to listen to these wind turbine victims you admit as clearly caring about the issue of their health. In turn, you like so many with your elitist thinking, do NOTHING to investigate their situation; an action that is not reflective of a public servant taking on the responsibility of his job.




Instead you continue this past Thursday with the wind industry mantra from the Dutch study of no “peered review data showing adverse health effects” which in fact reads as the following “no adverse health effects could be directly connected to wind turbine noise other than annoyance”. If one understood this carefully, it simply indicates that there is a lack of evidence and the authors of the Dutch study in their conclusion recommended further investigation. Note annoyance is associated with a host of symptoms such as lack of sleep, restlessness and depression. I guess with your of disconnect, unless it bleeds it doesn't lead.


Your disconnect again indicates that people such as farmers who clearly want turbines have a greater need then people who are suffering from the turbine's inappropriate placement. You seem to lack the understanding that this desperate plea is the result of poor Ag. Policy in this country where farmers are never in control of the price they receive for their commodities and must continually battle a world wide market heavily subsidized by other countries. Your disconnect continues the proliferation of a cheap, corporate food policy in this province, which makes it more important than the preservation of Ag. Lands, an adequate on farm income, and the keeping of a skill set that only farmers maintain for the production of food for our own residents. You continue with a feel good message of wind as the second harvest for farmers while ignoring that things like first-rights-of refusal and postponement of mortgages enclosed in these Industrial developer contracts, puts into question the long term ownership of Ag. Lands in this province.




Another level of disconnect is added by you relating the number of deaths attributed to air pollution , yet you conveniently forget to relay that 80% of South west Ontario's air pollution is due to US sources drifting in on prevailing southwest winds. You also forget to relate that not one coal generating plant in Ontario has all of it's proper scrubbers; a simple solution it seems to address these deaths you continue to flaunt in front of these victims as more substantive than their own situation.




During standing committee you discounted Barbara Ashbee's pleas for relief by questioning if anyone knew that deaths could be attributed to wind developments. As if her suffering is less of an issue than the injuries that occurred with nuclear fall out in Chernobyl over 30 years ago. I related to you in an aside that indeed several workers (35 world wide since the introduction of wind that have been reported) did in fact die (excludes injuries to passerby's and workers) from working on IWT's. You simply smiled at me and walked away.




You further state that 9000 deaths due to AIR POLLUTION is substantial, which in your clever wordage, concludes that a few hundred people suffering from ILFN from IWT's is irrelevant in your estimation. The suffering of Barbara Ashbee, Sandy MacLeod, Glen Wylds, Nikki Horton etc. etc, etc, is only the start and is further undermined because of your huge assumption that things like intermittent, inefficient wind replaces coal generation. In addition you somehow don't relate how many of these 9000 deaths can be attributed to pollution created by emissions from vehicles, another significant contributor to air pollution.




You continue by overlooking the reams of information sent your way which related to you, that wind can in fact put more emphasis on fossil-fuel generation because only this form of electrical generation can adequately backup fluttering, unpredictable wind. In your own personal fight against NG, surely you would have investigated the reason for this electrical plant in order to muster up a substantive argument against it's construction.


You further relate that we must move now on climate change. I ask you, must this be at the expense of a set of residents living within the rural areas of the province? Are we in a time of war, were a general must make the heart wrenching decision to sacrifice the few to save the many? Is this your role as an MPP within the province of Ontario whose provincial policy statement clearly identifies that people have the right to live in clean and safe environments. Perhaps I didn't read clearly that a certain percentage of people must be sacrificed for the so called "greater good of Ontario". Can you advise me if such a policy exists and at what percentages of harm must exit before our gov't steps in to take action.




In closing Mr. Tabuns and all those who support your ideas, I am appalled at your flagrant support of Industrial wind energy and can assure you and Ms. Horwath, that if the NDP continue to harbour your kind of environmentalism, the NDP will never get my vote. Every person on my e-mail list will receive this letter to make them aware of your green snobbery and lack of real concern for the regular Ontario taxpayer.

This type of green elitism is essentially a representation of the disconnect you and many in the environmental movement engender today. Personally, as a farmer and a resident of this beautiful province, I am tired of taking a second, third and fourth seat to corporate and lobbying groups such as CanWEA thinly disguised as the environmentally conscious of Ontario.


C McLean

Ontario

(note: I have deleted pertinent information but this letter was signed with information including address, phone and email contact information) Nik