The Green Energy Act seeks to do away with any need for proper environmental assessments for renewable energy projects, strip all planning decisions from municipalities, silence citizens and give more power to the energy companies with the help of a new Energy Czar. Rural Ontario will be wide open for exploitation and local government will be have absolutely no say. This is greenwashing with a gun to your head.

What is very frightening is the anti-democratic 'reverse onus' clause tucked into this bill. In the past, the onus would be on a developer to provide proper study and evidence that a project would do no harm to the environment or humans. No more. Bill 150 goes into some detail how the onus will now be on the "victim" to prove any damages. But, hey, the bill also overrides the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act...so how is the average family going to prove anything, especially if they don't have the hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring it forward to an complex legal Environmental Tribunal?

Shake the green fairy dust off and one will see this is the most draconian, fascist piece of legislation proposed in our lifetime. Looked at objectively, this is a step backwards for environmentalism. The McGuinty Liberals no longer want bother to with citizens concerned about the protection of wildlife and natural habitat or families concerned about raising their children in the shadow of several 40-storey spinning electrical generators.

This is not about turbines and solar panels anymore. This is about basic civic rights and the future stewardship of rural Ontario.
Maureen Anderson
Amherstburg, ON