By: Karen Hunter

The National Day of Mourning sends “a strong message to all governments of their obligation and responsibility to strongly enforce health and safety laws and regulations,” says Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, formerly the CAW.

There’s a “serious lack of commitment,” Unifor says of the provincial government, “to enforce the health and safety protections that we have fought for,” so “unfortunately, the suffering continues.” One of the hazardous dangers flagged by the union on its website notice is noise.

Meanwhile, a new online petition targets Unifor for its failure to comply with provincial health and safety protections, specifically noise regulations.

Unifor owns and operates the controversial CAW Wind Turbine, located on its property in Port Elgin, Ontario on the shore of Lake Huron. The turbine began operation in 2013 to generate money for the union. At the time, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) approved the turbine on the condition that the Union would conduct noise audits within the first two years of operation and provide MOE with the results.

Now, as the turbine begins its fourth year of operation, the tests and results are, at a minimum, two years late.

140 noise complaints prompted town council to pass a motion asking the CAW to honour President Ken Lewenza’s commitment to shut down the turbine if it harmed residents.

MOE knew — as did everyone else — how important noise monitoring would be. Unifor’s turbine is located just 210 metres from the nearest home, less than half of the 550-metre distance required by provincial noise regulations. MOE approved Unifor’s turbine after the union had the community’s zoning changed from a rural tourist/recreational classification to city semi-urban to allow for increased noise.

To further address noise levels, the union stated that its powerful 800kw turbine would operate at just 500kw (despite reduced revenue generation) and that it would self-monitor its operation. Since its startup, Unifor and MOE have received hundreds of noise complaints, day and night, from the nearly 200 families who live within the turbine’s 550-metre radius. Still, the noise testing has not been done.

Back in 2013, during the turbine’s first six months of operation, 140 noise complaints prompted town council to pass a motion asking the CAW to honour President Ken Lewenza’s commitment to shut down the turbine if it harmed residents. The union dismissed the request.

In the turbine’s second year of operation, the district MOE office asked the union to hire an independent acoustic consultant, conduct tests to determine if the turbine is exceeding ministry standards, and provide the results to the ministry. The test results have still not been received.

In the turbine’s third year of operation, town council asked Unifor and MOE to meet and discuss the community’s ongoing noise problems plus documents (obtained through a Freedom of Information request) that reveal incidents where the turbine’s noise exceeded government standards. Unifor declined to attend.

Unifor’s turbine is now in its fourth year of operation without the required tests showing proof of compliance. Nearby residents have even tried to conduct their own professional tests. But their efforts have been thwarted by MOE guidelines that require Unifor’s participation. So, the families continue to suffer from the turbine’s noise. And both Unifor and MOE are well aware.

The families hope their petition will generate enough public pressure to force Glen Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, to enforce the noise tests and result in Unifor doing them. So far, nothing else has worked.

Will the union-promoted National Day of Mourning convince the provincial government to enforce legislation that protects health and safety? If so, what will it take to convince Unifor to comply?

READ ARTICLE: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/karen-hunter/unifor-wind-tubrine_b_9781936.html

Please sign the petition.

Grimsby Lincoln News

May  2nd, 2016 8:50 am| by Shifa Rahaman

Health Unit investigation based on perceived health effects of wind turbines.

(Huron County, Ontario) – May 2, 2016

The first phase of a Huron County Health Unit investigation on the perceived adverse health effects of wind turbines is about to get under way.

Leading the investigation is Health Unit epidemiologist Doctor Erica Clark.

She tells Bayshore Broadcasting News that the first phase launching this month will be dedicated to information gathering.

Doctor Clark says she will interview each participant personally, before any turbine-related information is received.

The questions asked will include the number of turbines located near where the participant lives, and what kind of structures are on their property.

Doctor Clark notes that each person taking part will then be given a personal code to use when answering questions in the on-line portion of the survey.

For those without Internet access, the survey is available in hard copy form.

She points out that further action in the second phase of the survey will depend on analysis of phase one questionnaires.

Phase two will involve actual measurements of things like ambient noise coming from the turbines.

Doctor Clarke says the Health Unit will share survey information with the provincial and federal governments.

She stresses that the Health Unit initiative is not related to the Health Canada survey of health issues connected to wind turbines that was done in 2013 and 2014.

Acoustical measure analysis is still being examined, and findings of the federal study have not been released yet.

READ MORE:   http://www.bayshorebroadcasting.ca/news_item.php?NewsID=84200

The following article is about a researcher who is mapping an American city’s soundscape. Community noise audible and non audible impacts our health and wellbeing both in urban environments and quiet rural settings.

Listen: There’s noise we can hear and noise we can feel. Both can affect our health

Mapping Boston’s soundscape

Large Renewable Procurement (LRP) Engagement

Have something you want to say to IESO about Ontario’s continued Large Renewable Procurement?  Deadline May 3, 2016

You can complete the online survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CX3K5T6

or send in a written submission:

Independent Electricity System Operator
1600-120 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 1T1

or  email:

“Should you have any questions or comments on the future engagement, please send them to engagement@ieso.ca. “

READ MORE AT:

http://www.ieso.ca/Pages/Participate/Stakeholder-Engagement/Large-Renewable-Procurement-LRP-Engagement.aspx

by Patti Kellar,  published  London Free Press in 2012 

1. Spend a lifetime believing you were living in a society where democracy was a fundamental right of every citizen.

2. Buy and sell the concept that wind and solar energy sources are free, will save the planet, resolve the energy crisis, create employment and do so all with minimal disruption to the environment.

3. Ignore all evidence globally to the contrary.

4. Read about scandal after scandal; policies developed with out due diligence; politicians making back door deals and shaking hands with the most corrupt business in the world – further contributing to the growing economic crisis.

5. Try not to believe that the people you trusted to govern were creating programs and laws that quietly and effectively destroy democracy, increase energy costs, driving businesses out of the province and branding anyone who questions those changes as selfish, environmentally unfriendly and too stupid to understand the greater good.

6. Start doing your homework, listening to real people’s experiences, and realize that there are enough contradictions in information out there that at the very least, the pause button needs to be hit NOW.

7. Watch people turn into ‘receptors’ , be ignored and bullied while the people paid to govern create more rules, pay lip service to any and all concerns that are being heard in public arenas across the province and continue to develop practices and policies that rip apart families and communities and further contribute to the growing rural /urban divide.

8. Watch the pain in someone you love who realizes that the land that was cleared and settled by their forefathers is about to be irrevocably changed; realizing that all they have worked towards their entire lives will be disseminated and know that should we be unfortunate to be part of the 3 – 30 percentile of people who suffer negative health effects – there is literally no recourse other than to abandon the home we have worked towards all our lives.

9. Wonder how people you have smiled and waved at – who farmed next to you can go for years, watching you work and never mention how their decision to increase their own wealth – will change everything – all the while wondering how you can be called a selfish supporter of fossil fuels because you want to stop what is happening to your life and to the environment which you love. Feel guilt when you realize others have already experienced this loss and you were unaware.

10. Make a conscious choice to remove your head from the sand, move WAY outside of your comfort zone, put up a sign, replace it when someone steals it, start talking to people and have difficult conversations, start writing letters, start attending meetings, start carrying your sign around, stop attending businesses that support wind leases, walk in protests, drive your friends a little crazy (and yourself) and VOILA – someone calls you an activist and to your amazement – that is exactly what you have become.

An Elgin County community that stands to gain a wind farm it doesn’t want has told regulators they should count native endorsement of a project only if the bands have claims near the planned site.

Dutton Dunwich says any future renewable-energy rules should also require municipal support before any contract can be awarded.

Still steamed by a 20-turbine project awarded to Chicago-based Invenergy this month, Dutton Dunwich wants the province to do more than just tweak rules for Large Renewable Procurement (LRP) for wind, solar and water power. The Independent Electricity Systems Operator has asked for corporate and municipal feedback for the next two LRP rounds.

Under current rules, a company needs to prove it has engaged the community if it wants to win a contract. But that doesn’t mean what Dutton Dunwich thought it meant. “They talk about community engagement. All that means is public meetings,” said Mayor Cameron McWilliams.

His council has unanimously passed a resolution saying a municipality’s no should mean no and only a municipal ‘yes’ can place a project in the running.

In Dutton Dunwich, in a referendum answered by 56 per cent of voting-aged residents, 84 per cent said they didn’t want turbines.

NCC Developments — a green-energy partnership among six Northern First Nations groups — has a 10% ownership interest in the Invenergy Strong Breeze project in Dutton Dunwich.

In a letter to The Free Press NCC chief executive officer Geordi Kakepetum said the proximity of native partners should have no bearing on a project’s value.

NCC’s revenue from this project will help First Nations develop remote solar microgrids and reduce dependence on diesel, it says.

Dutton Dunwich also wants to know why some projects were selected and others rejected. “As elected officials, we are supposed to be transparent . . . but it doesn’t seem to work at a provincial level,” McWilliams said.

The six northern First Nations are hundreds of kilometres northwest of Dutton Dunwich.

But there is precedent for green-energy contracts with aboriginal support far from where the power would be generated: A solar project in Ryerson Twp west of Algonquin Park is backed by Missanabie Cree First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie; a hydro-electric project on the Trenton Locks near Belleville has backing from Dokis First Nation west of North Bay; and Invenergy’s solar contract at Lake Simcoe Airport also has support from the NCC in Ontario’s northwest.

NCC says Dutton Dunwich should be proud to be part of the greening of Ontario.

And, it notes, Dutton Dunwich will see economic benefit from the $150-million development: 150 construction jobs, plus local suppliers providing many of the materials; and tax revenue in excess of $4 million during the 20 years of the contract.

McWilliams said the province limits tax assessments of turbines to about one-fiftieth of their actual value. “I’m not disputing there’s some tax revenue but it’s not significant.”

Neighbouring Malahide Township offered to be a host site to turbines but the bidder there was unsuccessful.

IESO has said bidders were chosen based on a formula that includes native involvement, pricing, nearby energy needs and proximity to electrical connections.

Turbines have been a flashpoint in Southwestern Ontario, where opponents have criticized a process that minimizes local decision-making. Others worry about possible health effects of turbines on people and migrating birds.

dvanbrenk@postmedia.com

READ ARTICLE:   http://www.lfpress.com/2016/04/28/no-means-no-for-wind-farms-says-council