Nepean Carleton Greens

Greetings all,

Elections
Reminder 7:00pm June 11th @ the Royal Canadian Legion in Manotick (5550 Ann, Manotick, ON).  The Greens could always use your donations, we don't have the oil companies to bank roll us!

I've been busy this week:

•  attended a meeting with provincial MPP Phil McNeely (L) and others discussing Ontario's Green Energy Bill-150,
• attended
  North Gower Wind Action group's town hall and sympathized with their
  concern that perceived health effects of wind turbines will lower their
  property values,
• wine & cheese with Green Party federal council and Elisabeth May.

Ontario Green Energy
The
past few weeks have seen some interesting developments.  First, the
Ontario Provincial Government has passed Bill-150 (a.k.a The Green
Energy Act) much to my excitement - this is a huge deal.  The
commitment from the province to increase funds for energy efficiency
home retrofitting will certainly help.  And the money available to
schools, colleges and universities to retrofit and build new green
buildings means big construction jobs can start soon and high
efficiency is a requirement.  The cheapest energy is the kind we never
have to use.

It's not a perfect piece of legislation, the $0.80 per kWh
for some domestic roof-top electrical solar panels is bordering in
madness.  And the attitude of wind power at all costs has left people
in North Gower worried about their property values.

Wind
A lingering concern about reports from across Canada and around the world of severe sleep disruption and other health effects needs to be put to rest or opposition to wind generation will only escalate. 
A Federal (not provincial) study on health effects with safe-distance
standards needs to be done.  Between 4 and 10 turbines 450ft tall
(150ft taller than the peace tower) with a wingspan of a 747 jet are
planned to go up in North Gower.  A great undertaking by the local
farmer, bravo!  There are 643 homes within 3km of the turbines
and these residents do not want their homes to suffer a 10-30%
devaluation of their homes because of the perceived health risks.

More Elections?
And finally, here's the scoop on the next
Canadian Federal Election - June 23rd is the last day for the house. 
There will be 3 days (likely before June 18) for the Bloc, NDP, and
Liberals to bring down the Conservatives based on the budget estimates
(money matters are automatically confidence matters).  Here's hoping
the MPs this country elected are aware we want them to keep working and
avoid a 4th election in 5 years.


Jean-Luc Cooke
Nominee for the Federal Green Party Candidate for Nepean-Carleton

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