Daily Archives: July 18, 2009

07.18.09
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Backyard wind turbine rejected by Ontario Municipal Board


An Ottawa resident who has been lobbying to put a wind turbine in his backyard in the city’s Westboro neighbourhood has been told that his project is grinding to a halt.

Graham Findlay had applied for a variance to install what’s known as an “energy ball” on his property near Island Park Drive.

Findlay is a commercial wind arm developer with Ottawa-based 3G Energy Corporation and has said that he wants to mount that “energy ball” on a pole in his backyard to make it 10 metres high so he can produce his own energy at home.

In October, the city refused to approve his application to mount the turbine in his backyard, so he appealed through the Ontario Municipal Board.
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07.18.09
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Huron County agricultural group seeks moratorium on wind power projects


The Huron County Federation of Agriculture will be visiting municipalities throughout Huron County asking them to follow Huron East’s lead by passing interim control bylaws on commercial wind energy projects within their borders.

The federation’s directors discussed the current debate around wind turbine developments at their June meeting and passed two resolutions.

One was to request lower-tier municipalities in Huron to enact a moratorium on commercial wind energy projects pending results of an epidemiological study conducted into the health impacts of the specific infrastructure on residents living near such developments.

The other was to support the study.

President Wayne Black says he’ll be attending council meetings throughout Huron County to talk to councillors about their thoughts about wind projects.
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07.18.09
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Storm warning – ‘a terrific financial crunch in the 2010 budget’


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While city council dares flood-prone residents to “sue us,” officials up the road in London are stepping up a program that assists those affected by basement flooding in far more proactive fashion.
This past Monday, city staff presented an engineering report to council that addresses the impact of a June downpour that generated close to three dozen phone calls from across the city from residents who experienced an influx of water.
Getting down to the nitty-gritty, the document can best be summed up with this message to those affected – sorry about your luck.
Staff and our elected officials should take a page from the preventative strategy adopted by our northern neighbours whereby owners are urged to take advantage of city subsidies to reduce sewage backups and flooding.
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