Minister Thompson, coming from a rural area, I believe you are well qualified to protect the agricultural portfolio. You are also knowledgeable with the very serious adverse health effects of industrial wind turbines and the damage to ground water sources.
We are retired farmers who looked forward to a well-deserved retirement. We milked cows 24/7 for over 30 years with only short holidays. I worked off the farm to generate additional income.
Now instead of enjoying retirement we are fighting for our lives as are many of your constituents, only they have been fighting much longer.
We joined the fight in 2014 when a foreign company approached landowners and the rest of the Nation Rise Wind project is history. I look at the fields. I was under the impression that IWTs were only allowed to be on prime agricultural land because they only use 1 acre. Minister of Agriculture, please come and tour the Nation Rise Wind project. Measure the prime agricultural land loss to access roads, turbine bases; it is much greater than 1 acre.
We did not consent to the known adverse health effects, noise and shadow flicker we are now forced to live and work in, with incident reports being filed from December, 2020 and increasing as turbines are more active.
As Minister of Agriculture your mandate is to protect the vital prime agricultural land which feeds Ontario. It is important as well to protect the highly vulnerable aquifer (already compared to Dover, Chatham-Kent), protect the endangered bats, the migrating birds, and protect the health of current and upcoming farmers.
Ontario needs healthy farmers, prime agricultural land, and clean water; Ontario does not need the Nation Rise Wind project.
Nation Rise Wind project can and should be terminated.
Ruby Mekker
Finch, ON