• Thursday January 29^th   hearing starts at 10am

• “Stantec Panel”:
• Chris Powel
•  Andrew Taylor
•      David Charlton
• Shant Dokouzian

• Friday January 30th   hearing starts at 10am
• Benjamin  Coulson
• Denton Miller

by Wind Concerns Ontario, Jan 27 2015

Loretta Shields, a member of Mothers Against Wind Turbines, presented at the appeal of the approval of the Niagara Region Wind Corporation wind power generation project yesterday, and outlined the many negative impacts on species at-risk, and environments such as woodlands that are supposed to be protected under Ontario legislation.

“There are so many issues,” Shields tells Wind Concerns Ontario. “For example, there is no evidence to show that winter raptor transects were conducted within the interior of the woodlands.  Sixty-two permits are required by the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority.  These are still pending.   There are 20 industrial wind turbines proposed in Blanding’s turtle habitat in Lowbanks, all on private property.  There are many properties within this habitat where ‘alternative investigations’ i.e., ‘roadside surveys’ were allowed.  The MNR is allowing this to proceed.”

Shields had prepared a 32-slide PowerPoint presentation for the Environmental Review Tribunal, detailing sections of Ontario legislation that ought to be applied to protect the environment and wildlife, but are being overlooked or ignored in order to allow the power development to proceed.

Shields also told WCO she was grateful to learn about the “many birds and raptors” in the project area during her investigations and audit of the wind power developer’s application documents: “a silver lining” to this event, she said.

Details on the hearing dates may be found here.

Shields’ PowerPoint presentation may be found here: Powerpoint for NRWC Appeal Jan 26

More details on what happened at the hearing may be found in this excellent report from Mothers Against Wind Turbines here with information on how to donate to this legal action .

Thank You to Wind Concerns Ontario for the show of support!

Today is the day that many of you will be sitting in the witness seat, trying desperately to present the truth about the negative impact that the NRWC project will have on your rural community, the people in that rural community and the future of that rural community.

The process has been manipulated from the beginning.  Our democratic system is being destroyed from within and the removal of democratic rights for a politically motivated initiative should cause extreme alarm. Fifty nine democratically elected MPP’s removed democratic rights from all citizens of Ontario when they passed the Green Energy Act into law in 2009.

When you remove the power of the people and people’s rights can be ignored or trampled on then we are moving to a socialist state. This will allow those with the most money, access to the decision making and the wealth and resources of this province will be controlled by fewer and fewer people.

Some of the presentations have had large portions of the material removed  – not because the material was irrelevant BUT because it was the truth that will cause this project to come unglued. Corruption comes from power without accountability and today you will be surrounded by power without accountability. It is demoralizing to have democratic principles and rules of law twisted to facilitate a provincial initiative that will make a few corporations rich but impoverish the rest of the people. A government that engages in predatory corruption is gambling with its own political legitimacy and breeds insurrection.

You have done the homework and studied hard for this test. Do your best and know that I am with you in spirit as you put the truth on the table. Divine intervention is required and prayers are answered in mysterious ways.  

Sister Catherine

Tribunal Hearing Starts January 26^th  at 10 a.m. at the Firefighter Memorial Hall, 31907 Park Street, Wainfleet (close to Township Offices). Please try to attend to show your support. 

The hearing is expected to last at least 5 days (Monday– Friday).

HDI’s (Haudenosaunee Development Institute) request to become a party at the hearing has been denied by the Tribunal.

The current schedule of speakers for the first two days appears below.  Stay tuned for the line up for the following day

Monday January 26^th 2015

Marianne Kidd

Lois Johnston

Loretta Shields

Jody Sadler

Kevin Dooley

Sue Atkins

Tuesday January 27^th 2015  (evening session until 7:30pm)

Bill Palmer

Linda Rogers

Naomi Brusse

Debbie Hughes

Shellie Correia

Mike Jankowski

Mandy Smith

PLEASE NOTE hearing dates and locations are posted on the Tribunal’s website at http://www.ert.gov.on.ca/english/hearings/index.htm.

Over the last year, our communities have been overwhelmed by the installation of Industrial Wind Development.  In the municipalities of North Middlesex, Lambton Shores and Adelaide-Metcalf NextEra’s Bornish project (45 turbines), Kerwood project (37 turbines) and Jericho project (92 turbines) all use the same transmission line to feed electricity into the grid.  Bornish and Kerwood became operational this past summer while Jericho went live last month.  The Suncor Adelaide project of mammoth 2.3 MW turbines has yet to come on line.

All three of NextEra’s projects were appealed to the Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT).  All of the appeals were dismissed, by the esteemed panel; noting that the community had no grounds for concern, as the expert panel provided by the proponents testified under oath that there was no possible impact to the community or the environment.  The ERT found that the Appellants failed to provide evidence to show that engaging in these projects WILL cause serious and irreversible harm.

Here is an example of that testimony from the Jericho ERT:

NextEra’s expert witness, Mr. James Arkerson, Manager – Wind Project Engineering at NextEra Energy Resources LLC, the Approval Holder’s parent company, testified that “he was not an expert in stray voltage“.  He also testified “that the transmission and collection lines for the Project were designed by licensed professional engineers and that the system complies with the Ontario Electrical Safety Code and other applicable standards.”  So they must be safe, and that was evidence enough to prove that the projects would not impact the health and well being of the residents of our communities.

Mr. Arkerson also raised the possibility that other conductive objects, such as metal fences or pipelines, might induce voltage but noted that the Approval Holder is obligated to perform induction studies and demonstrate compliance to the ESA and the affected utilities, but he expected in this case that any voltage induced would be insignificant. When questioned about whether this conclusion was premature given that the induction studies were not complete, Mr. Arkerson stated that he was drawing on his past experience with numerous similar projects.  He also noted that the Project cannot be energized until compliance with the applicable standards has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the ESA.  Unfortunately, for the residents affected by this project, Mr. Arkerson was merely a puppet, speaking the words of NexTerror, and his ‘expertise’ failed to prove that there was definitely NO reason for concern, with regards to stray voltage.

This is what’s really happening in our communities ……………..

Ontario Wind Resistance, Jan 21 2015

Wainfleet Firefighters Memorial Community Hall,

 31907 Park St., Wainfleet, Ontario

The date scheduled for both the motions on Wednesday,January 21,  10am

 and the main hearing days from Jan 26 to 30, 2015 will remain unchanged, as this new venue is available on all of these days starting at 9am

Provision of Expert Opinion concerning the Adverse Impacts of Wind Turbine Noise
(TruEnergy Renewable Developments v Goyder Regional Council, South Australia).

Dear Mr Abbott,


I confirm that I have been provided with practice direction 5.4 relating to Expert Witnesses (Rule 160), and that I have read it and understood it.


I have been asked by you to provide a report to address the following question:


“Will noise or other direct or indirect consequences (and which consequences) of the operation of the Stony Gap wind farm erected as contemplated in the Application, and involving turbines of the type and dimensions referred to in the Application, in your opinion be likely to cause adverse health effects or significantly exacerbate existing adverse health effects to a significant percentage of the population living within up to 10 kilometers of the turbines from the Stony Gap Wind Farm?”


In my opinion, it is inevitable that this proposed wind development, if built in this location with turbines of the specified size, will cause serious harm to the physical and mental health of a significant percentage of the surrounding population, including particularly to vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly, and those with pre existing medical and psychiatric conditions, who live and work in the sound energy impact zone of this proposed Stony Gap Wind Farm (SGWF), out to a distance of at least 10 kilometers from the turbines, over the lifetime of the project. This harm will be caused directly by the audible and inaudible sound energy generated by the wind turbines, which will cause significant repetitive sleep disturbance, and physiological stress. The physiological mechanisms have been demonstrated in animals to be due to abnormal activation of the vestibular system and sympathetic nervous system by the effect of infrasound and low frequency noise (ILFN) on the inner ear. (1)


These are serious adverse health effects, which lead to a range of other symptoms and illnesses by interfering with the hypothalamic-pituitary axis (“master” control mechanism of the endocrine system), disturbance of the autonomic nervous system and compromise of immunological competence. (2)


This report is confined to the adverse health effects on human health from sound energy, reported by residents living near wind turbines as this is my specific area of knowledge and expertise. Other adverse health effects such as symptoms and illnesses resulting from exposure to shadow flicker have certainly been reported by residents at wind developments, but are not addressed in this report.


My opinion is informed by my direct knowledge of the reported health problems of residents living near existing Wind Turbine Developments, particularly in Australia and Ontario. My opinion is also informed by the known adverse health consequences resulting from exposure to environmental noise, and the known serious adverse health consequences of chronic sleep deprivation and chronic stress.


Sleep deprivation (3) and stress (4) related symptoms are the commonest health complaints reported by residents living near wind turbines, and in my opinion, they are individually and collectively responsible for the observed and reported deterioration in some residents’ health with cumulative exposure to operating wind turbines Continue reading Dr Sarah Laurie, world expert on health and wind farms, speaks out →