Passions gust on both sides of wind debate

Re: Offshore wind farm stirs up a tempest

John Spears does a reasonable job of capturing the controversy at last night's meeting but I think his efforts to be fair have left out a couple of important points.

The major issue is that Scarborough residents, including those living near the site of the study (myself included), spoke on both sides of the issue. The "controversy" had little to with geography and a lot to do with simple NIMBYism. Some people didn't want a wind farm anywhere near where they lived while others from the same neighbourhoods looked forward to the prospect.

As for people being "bused in", a frequent charge from the NIMBY crowd, it's true that a number of people came in on buses from Kennedy Station, including the TTC 116 which stops outside the school's front door. However that accounted for only a small segment of the 1,000 people in attendance. For many like myself, driving a car to a meeting on wind power seemed inappropriate. I'm guessing the large numbers of SUVs parked nearby were from the NIMBYs.

Moreover, some of the "not from around here" speakers have long records of commitment to the environment. They included people from a number of local and national environmental groups. Peter Tabuns, for example, as a former city councillor, former chair of the Toronto Board of Health, former executive director of Greenpeace, and a sitting MPP for a Toronto riding certainly has the credentials to speak at any meeting of this type.

The other issue is that the opponents of the study behaved rather badly, shouting and booing at speakers who spoke in favour of the project. In the end, that really sums up the case against the study - there isn't one that can withstand reasoned debate.

Gary Dale