Green goes bad: solar energy in South Frontenac

Michael Goodspeed | Jul 08, 2015

As a part of the provincial Liberals green energy initiative, hundreds of thousands of solar panels may be installed in industrial plants across South Frontenac. While green energy is a good thing, the way the Wynne government is going about it is disastrous for rural communities. Massive solar plants in South Frontenac will degrade the landscape, lower property values and destroy the countryside's heritage. It doesn’t end there. The shifty approval process that’s in place is little more than a meaningless charade that’s corrupting municipal politics.

The approval process is rigged. The Liberal energy policy has been outsourced to multi-billion dollar foreign corporations such as SunEdison and Samsung. These corporations rent hundreds of acres and erect solar panels for a period of twenty years. To get an idea of what our township will look like, go see the Samsung solar factory on Unity Rd.

Initially, the corporations must make a “presentation” to the residents. There is no official oversight in these presentations, and they’re highly selective in what they reveal.

Corporations must then seek “approval” from the municipal council. To get council’s okay, the energy companies have offered to make an annual “donation” to the municipality. If such “donations” were done on an individual basis, it would be a criminal bribe. Notwithstanding, if the council is principled, and it refuses the bribe, Premier Wynne can still approve the plant. In that case, the energy company still wins and doesn’t have to pay the municipality a dime. Bribery is compounded by legal, politically approved blackmail.

There’s more to it. The current system is designed simply to give the impression of local approval. Local approval is utterly bogus. Municipal approval does not come from the affected residents, but rather the whole municipality. The process is purposely designed to tempt those councillors who won’t have solar factories in their ward to collect the money and stick it to someone else.

At the public meeting on 17 June in a show of hands, only five or six residents favoured the solar plants; the overwhelming majority - in a packed gymnasium, voted against them.

Ontario is a massive province. It’s bigger than Western Europe. We have enough room to develop solar power without ruining our rural-residential communities. There’s no need to cram these solar projects into rural-residential areas. Electricity can be transmitted efficiently over hundreds of miles. Quebec ships electricity from James Bay to New York City. The current process simply ratchets up profits for mega-corporations.

Green energy doesn’t have to be this way. No one should have this kind of industrial plant forced on them. If zoning laws are out of date, it’s time to change them, not cave in to corporate bribery.

Ontario can easily have viable, renewable energy sources and keep its rural areas rustic and beautiful, something our municipal council owes to future generations.

The provincial Liberals already have a stunningly awful history of energy mismanagement: a billion and a half dollars wasted on un-built gas plants, erased email evidence and plans to sell Hydro One. Premier Wynne wants to get all this out of sight quickly by demonstrating a quick makeover of Ontario’s energy future before she sells off Hydro One. All this comes at the expense of Ontario’s rural-residential communities. If the Liberals, and our municipal council, are serious about ethical green governance, they’ll change this now.