Toronto—A proposed wind power project in Ontario’s scenic Algoma region will turn the Canadian landscapes made famous around the world by Canada’s Group of Seven painters into an industrial power facility. The Bow Lake wind power project with 36 turbines, will be located on Crown land exactly in areas painted by Harris, Lismer, Jackson and MacDonald in the 1920s.
Canada’s cultural heritage is being sacrificed for profit and a misguided energy policy, says Wind Concerns Ontario. “These landscapes are the very image of Canada for people around the world,” says president Jane Wilson. “Now, they are being despoiled for profit, and by the Ontario government’s misguided energy policy.”
The 60-megawatt project, developed by Toronto-based BluEarth Renewables, will be next to the Lake Superior Provincial Park and the Voyageur Trail. The huge turbines will also be visible from the Agawa Canyon Tour Train; the province recently invested $5 million in the tour train to attract tourists and boost the local economy.
“We get visitors here from all over the world,” says local resident Gillan Richards, a member of Save Ontario’s Algoma Region (SOAR) and Wind Concerns Ontario. “When they find out about the wind power project, they are horrified. Nobody is going to come to Canada to see turbines.”
The Ontario government has not done proper analysis of the economic impact or harm to the environment, says Wilson. “These huge structures add nothing to the landscape, they are very invasive to the environment. The Auditor General said in 2011 that ‘no comprehensive business-case evaluation was done to objectively evaluate the impacts’ of the government’s energy program, including wind power—this is a clear example of that. The wind power developer makes money in subsidies but the community and, in this case, all of Canada loses out.”
