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Home My WebLink AboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-09-28, Page 4Wednesday, September 28, 2016 • Lucknow Sentinel 9 Ontario energy: Wind opponents see Liberals backing down John Miner London Free Press Wind farm opponents are telling companies jockey- ing for new Ontario green energy contracts to enjoy the moment — it'll likely be their last chance. After a decade-long los- ing streak before environ- mental review tribunals and courts, activists trying to halt industrial wind farms say they sense the political ground is finally shifting in their favour now that power rates have become a hot urban issue and the Liberal government is taking notice. "It looks like this will be the last. I don't know how the government could pos- sibly justify more (such contracts)," said Jane Wil- son, presiden t of Wind Concerns Ontario, a coali- tion of groups opposed to industrial wind farm devel- opment in the province. Last week, in a move many critics linked to a stunning byelection loss in the Toronto area, Premier Kathleen Wynne's govern- ment said it will scrap the Ontario portion of the HST on electricity bills, giving customers an eight -per- cent rebate and rural areas an even larger break. The move comes less than a year after the gov- ernment yanked a 10 -per- cent subsidy it had paid on nwmo power bills to offset the costs of green energy. Wilson said more people are now connecting their rising power bills with the province's multi -billion - dollar spending on green energy projects at a time when Ontario is paying to export surplus electricity to the United States. She called on the Liberals to cancel the next round of wind farm development and walk away from any contracts where the devel- opers have failed to meet deadlines. Soaring power rates have come under a harsh spot- light in Ontario, with the province's auditor -general this year reporting Ontari- ans paid $37 billion above market price for electricity over the last eight years because of government decisions to ignore its own planning process for new projects. Bonnie Lysyk found the electricity component of power bills rose by 70 per cent from 2006 to 2014, with the province going against the advice of its own power planning authority, and warned power rates will keep climbing, costing consum- ers another $133 billion extra over the next 17 years. In rural Southwestern Ontario, wind farms have become a lightning rod for opposition to Ontario's NUCLEAR WASTE SOCIETE DE GESTION MANAGEMENT DES DECHETS ORGANIZATION NUCLEAIRES plunge into green energy. Home to the largest wind farms in the province, and the most wind turbines, the region includes many areas that have declared them- selves unwilling to take the projects, even though the government took away local control over where wind famrs can be built and ultimately calls the shots. Protests, court action and political campaigns — the Liberals remain largely shut out of the region — haven't stopped the move to green energy, which the province began in 2009 as it moved to phase out Ontar- io's dirty coal-fired power plants. At the government's direction, Ontario's Inde- pendent Electricity System Operator is now in the pro- cess of procuring up to 600 megawatts of new wind energy, equivalent to about 10 wind farms, as well as solar, waterpower and bioenergy. Fifty-nine companies have submitted applica- tions to qualify to bid on the contracts. Former Liberal riding president turned anti -wind farm activist, John Laforet, advocated a strategy in 2011 of targeting Liberal candidates in rural ridings where wind turbines were unpopular. The strategy was NWMO Learn More Centre Everyone is welcome. Drop in and learn more about Adaptive Phased Management (APM), and ongoing work in the area. APM is Canada's plan for the safe, long-term management of used nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is working collaboratively with Huron -Kinloss to consider the project and advance preliminary assessment studies. The Township of Huron -Kinloss is one of nine communities involved in this learning process. successful, with several Liberal cabinet ministers going down to defeat, including then -environ- ment minister John Wilkin- son in Perth -Wellington and then -agriculture Min- ister Carol Mitchell in Huron -Bruce. But the Liberal grip on major urban centres has kept the party in power and its green energy policy intact. Laforet said that urban concern over electricity costs changes the game. "Fundamentally, the Green Energy Act used to be bad science and good political science but that's no longer the case," he said. Laforet, principal at Broadview Strategy Group, said he has been approached by some indi- viduals and is now doing polling to develop a cam- paign that would clearly spell out to urban voters the impact of the Liberal green energy policies on their hydro bills. The goal of a popular campaign would be to cre- ate a situation where the Liberals would have to buckle, as they did when they ran into opposition to their plans for wind tur- bines in the Great Lakes, he said. "There is an opportunity to use this as a wedge that could bleed them votes on the left and the right and INWMO Learn More Centre (Huron -Kinloss) 46 Queen St., Ripley ON (across from Lewis Park) 519.386.6711 Wednesdays Thursdays Fridays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. blow them right out of office," Laforet said. While opposition to wind turbines in the past has been concentrated in rural and remote areas where the wind farms were built, largely Southwestern Ontario, Laforet said the recent plans for wind farms in eastern Ontario also caused a shift. That put the wind farms in cottage country, making it a personal issue for some people in Toronto and Ottawa. "They have awoken voices in the cities that are concerned about this now." In Huron -Bruce, home to some of the province's larg- est wind farm develop- ments, Conservative MPP Lisa Thompson launched an online petition calling for the province to bring down electricity costs. Within a few days more than 6,000 had signed and many added comments about the high costs of wind turbines, solar con- tracts and the mismanage- ment of the green energy file, said Thompson, the Conservative environment critic at Queen's Park. "People are getting it," she said. While wind farm oppo- nents are increasingly confident the green energy drive is about to stall, the Energy Ministry defended its record in a statement to The London Free Press, saying green investment attracted industry and created thousands of jobs. The Free Press sought comment from Energy Mininister Glenn Thi- beault, but the response came from a ministry spokesperson. "We inherited an elec- tricity system that had been badly neglected under the previous gov- ernment. As families and businesses across Ontario remember, brown outs, black outs, and smog days put our economy and our people at risk. We took that dirty, unreliable elec- tricity system and we made it clean — and one all of us can count on," the ministry statement said. October 12th Edition Display Advertising Wednesday, Oct 5th - 4pm Classifieds Thursday, Oct 6th - 2pm Office Hours The office will be closed on Monday, October 10th .V, 1 ,1 '. K1" I11I 1kar_ inn 719 Queen St., Kincardine 519.396.2963 Display: ariuett@postmedia.com Classifieds: dgoulding@postmedia.com