Archive

Dream can become a nightmare

May 18, 2017   ·   0 Comments

I wonder if council has any idea what legislation will be changed and how the Charter might be amended in the name of Suzuki’s Blue Dot initiative? Do they really know, or is this a blind following of an environmental celebrity who people believe has the best of intentions?

We can look to the intention of the provincial Green Energy and Green Economy Act, which passed through the Ontario Legislature in record speed back in 2009. Who wouldn’t want “green energy” to save the planet, to save asthmatics, to save the world? According to MPP Ted Arnott, in there were no less than seven pages of explanatory notes and 65 pages of clauses, opening up the Electricity Act, the Ministry of Energy Act, the Ontario Energy Board Act, the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Bill of Rights act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Ontario Water Resources Act, the Cooperative Corporations Act, the Building Code Act, the Planning Act, the Conservation Authorities Act, the Ministry of Natural Resources Act, the Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act, the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act and the Public Lands Act.

And what actually happened? We discovered that policies resulting from the Green Energy Act did absolutely nothing to save the planet but instead allowed the destruction of rural Ontario landscapes and protected environments and habitats, has resulted in energy poverty, has destroyed home living environments for those living among green projects and has been an unprecedented attack on health and human rights of Ontarians. And, it is making a small cluster of companies and government connections very rich off the backs of the taxpayers, thanks to powerfully attractive subsidies.

The pretense that contaminants in the air are to be curtailed and that every family has a right to clean air and water is a noble gesture. The reality is that contaminants come in many forms and if you drive just 10 minutes out of town you will find families suffering illness brought on by contaminants being emitted from “planet saving” wind turbines; 24/7 loud cyclical noise, infrasound, vibrations and dirty electricity are the new norm in the country, thanks to heartless federal and provincial policies that apparently cannot be turned around thanks to amended legislation. Nor can they be fixed by what anyone would consider normal remedies. The motives of full steam ahead green energy plans with the blessing of cunning federal and provincial leaders is not lost on us. The hurting families, the destruction to the environment, birds and wildlife for something that will never operate according to promises made should encourage people to look behind every feel-good headline.

Dufferin County was an early guinea pig in a green experiment gone wrong. Don’t be taken by the excitement of a mass social marketing campaign. The dream can easily turn into a nightmare when your rights have been removed by the stroke of a pen.

Barbara Ashbee

Mulmur

Readers Comments (0)