How the unholy alliance trumped climate change in North Frontenac

- Wolfe Erlichman | Aug 10, 2016

It was noted in last week's Frontenac News (North Frontenac Council, Jul 28/16) that North Frontenac Township is amending its Official Plan in order to discourage windmills in North Frontenac and, instead, to encourage “specialty” and “artisanal” businesses. Supposedly, this is being done in order to protect the “unique landscape character” of North Frontenac. This effort, led by mayor Ron Higgins, is wrongheaded. It tries to satisfy the local grievances of an unholy alliance made up of NIMBYists, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and well meaning but naive and misguided naturalists about the aesthetics, costs, and environmental impacts of windmills. However, it ignores global warming, which is a much more serious threat to the landscape of North Frontenac since global warming will bring perils such as droughts, mountain pine beetles, emerald ash borers, and others and windmills are an important part of the effort to fight global warming.

The Official Plan is not designed to fight the effects of climate change. It is true that many people do not like windmills but everything in life is a compromise and, for example, we live with transmission lines because we need the electricity they bring. The same would apply to windmills if we felt that they brought us sufficient benefits, whether financial or otherwise.

It should be noted that opponents of windmills often cite nuclear power as the answer to higher costs for electricity but they are wrong, as the many billions of dollars needed to refurbish our old reactors will be the primary reason for skyrocketing electricity prices in the future. If North Frontenac Mayor Higgins and his council were really interested in protecting the “landscape character of North Frontenac they would stop wasting time, money, and energy by tinkering with the Official Plan. They would stop denying climate change and welcome windmills to North Frontenac since global warming is the biggest threat to our environment. It would have a much greater impact on the overall landscape than windmills.