WIND TURBINE PROTEST
Dale Goldhawk
Local organizers are hoping one thousand people will drive in a protest motorcade on Thursday, the very day that WPD Canada, a giant German wind turbine company with subsidiaries in 20 countries, conducts its second ‘public hearing’ to tell local citizens about 8 500-foot turbines that will be built around the Collingwood Airport.
Of course, none of these ‘public hearings’ held by wind turbine companies ever amount to anything. The companies go through the motions because the meetings are required by law, under the terms of the Green Energy Act.
But as we know, under the GEA, local municipal councils have no power to stop wind turbines from being built.
Residents are particularly upset about this development because they believe it will compromise safety for aircraft at the airport.
After the motorcade moves down highway 91 to the Stayner arena, a number of people will speak to the crowd outside, including me, before the sham ‘public meeting begins inside.
ANTI-WIND GROUP PLANS SECOND RALLY
Brad Holden
Preserve Clearview, the ratepayers’ group that has been actively plotting against wpd Canada’s plans to build an eight-turbine wind farm near the intersection of Fairgrounds Road and County Road 91, put out a call this week for another protest to coincide with wpd’s second public meeting, scheduled for Thursday, August 2 from 5:30 to 8 pm. When wpd held its first public meeting in July, 2011, several hundred people paraded along Country Road 91 from Preserve Clearview member Kevin Elwood’s Clearview Nursery to the Stayner Community Centre, where the meeting was held.
Once there, an impromptu rally in the parking lot effectively distracted from much that was going on inside. The August 2 meeting is the last event that wpd is mandated to hold before a decision is made on the wind farm.
Preserve Clearview is requesting that protestors gather at Clearview Nursery at 3:30 pm, and that they bring their “tractors, trucks, posters, floats, family and friends.”
NOTICE OF FINAL PUBLIC MEETING
