Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is facing a new organization
of municipalities opposed to wind farms.
Wynne’s predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, rammed green energy
down the throats of municipalities, denying them the right to place
planning-act restrictions on wind farms and solar-energy.
As a result, they have been placed wherever companies want
them, regardless of municipal official plans.
“The implementation
and expansion of renewable energy (industrial-scale wind turbines and large
solar power projects) has developed to the point that it has caused hydro costs
to increase, caused a division between rural and urban municipalities, and
caused the citizens of Ontario to lose faith in democracy,” says Ron Higgins,
Mayor of North Frontenac.
The Ontario Multi-Municipal Group organization was formed at
the last meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) after
115 municipalities, or 25 percent of all municipalities in Ontario, passed
resolutions demanding that municipalities get final say in the siting of
renewable power projects.
“We are now speaking out on behalf of all those
communities,” Higgins says.
