Ontario Electricity System Operational Update Part #5: Eagle Eviction

Marking the total collapse of Ontario’s legal structure of nature conservation, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued an eviction notice to a an active Bald Eagle pair’s nest on the shore of Lake Erie near Port Dover to make way for another wind farm producing costly but now nearly totally useless power.

Until the Green Energy Act, Bald Eagles were a ‘Species of Concern’ in Ontario.

On Friday at 5:00 p.m. the MNR gave a permit to Florida energy developer and utility company NextEra to destroy the nest, on condition that NextEra complete the work on January 6th. Here is a before-and-after view of environmental protection in Ontario.

The only realistic approach to saving the remaining Bald Eagles in Ontario starts with getting rid of the Green Energy Act and banishing its parliamentary supporters into an opposition rump.

Here is Ontario PC Energy Critic Vic Fedeli joining with two stakeholders protesting the Ontario Liberal leadership convention.

7 Comments

  1. The only bird that came to any harm throughout this circus was the eagle shackled to his handler, enduring incessant bullhorn cackling from the same old tired group of 151 – and more of the same from poor old Vic, who didn’t look like he won the faceoff with the poor raptor.
    Confronted with the inevitability of the turbine installations, MNR did absolutely the right thing.

    • The MNR did absolutely nothing, other than rubber-stamp every single one of the 59 turbines in this project. There were many other options, including changing the planned location of at least one of the 59 turbines.

  2. m bell,

    Good point about the eagle used in the protest.

    Now, how about the people who may have their living conditions and the biggest investment of their lives destroyed by wind turbines ?

  3. Bruce,

    I just have to ask, where were you for the past 50 years when Ontario was building hydro plants across the north and trampling over those (mostly Aboriginal) communities? And where were you when the Oakville and Mississauga residents refused the gas plants in their neighbourhoods so that somebody else could put up with the effects of energy development? If you were protesting as loud then as you are now, then good for you. I have a sneaky suspicion that was not the case.

    Rick

    • That’s right, don’t answer the question about the physical and home value damage done by wind.

      Re: hydro and your comments above and below, you sound like a BANANA. If you believe the laughable 2005 pseudo-science health report on deaths caused by coal and use Jack Gibbons of the OCAA’s also-laughable metric of about 26 deaths per TWh of coal production, then if Adam Beck had never started large scale hydro and it was instead coal, right now we’d have an extra 500 ghost-deaths per year because of it.

      Re: gas plant moves, the processes clearly didn’t have objective and broad interests at heart, so really, who can compete with Erin Brockovich and an obscenely self-interested government ?

  4. Tom,

    Moratorium – agreed. Big wind was a bad idea – agreed. Political stunts aimed at wind’s effects on raptors? – ah, no. I won’t go there. Here’s why.

    The effects of other forms of generation on raptors are well documented and far in excess of those related to wind projects. Hydroelectric reservoir creation across Ontario and Canada has flooded thousands of high-quality riverine raptor nesting locations, and then there is the MeHg in the food chain from inundation that has long-term consequences for reproduction and morbidity. All well-documented.

    And that MeHg from hydro flooding is in addition to the MeHg deposited by coal generation throughout Canada’s northern lakes. Ah, coal. Really, can anyone actually sleep at night saying anything in defence of coal?? If they can, they have never been to Kentucky or never read Wendell Berry. There is not enough space to speak about coal generation’s effects on raptors throughout habitat loss, ecosystem contamination, climate change, acid rain, etc.

    And so, what about gas? (I cannot bring myself to include the “natural” word, please forgive me, Tom). If you have not yet been there, I suggest a trip to northeastern BC. You can go on google earth but, really, you have to see it to believe it. Millions of hectares of lost raptor habitat. Everywhere you look. And where they are not forced out they are hunted for sport by industry workers or run over by gas equipment.

    But, of course, nobody from coal towns, hydro towns or gas towns showed up at the Liberal convention with an eagle in tow did they? So long as we have our out-of-Province fossil fuels, we can plug in our toasters without concern for the raptors! Out of site, out of mind, I guess, eh?

    And, while we are at it, the biggest impact on eagle populations in southwestern Ontario? That would be loss of habitat due to agriculture crops and shooting to protect farm animals. (http://www.bsc-eoc.org/research/speciesatrisk/baea/index.jsp?targetpg=history). In other words, rural Ontarians have been running the eagles out of town for two centuries and now that the wind towers show up we all have to defend the eagles!!

    I won’t defend the wind developers, but the truth deserve some defending.

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