What a waste!

“…the Earth lying in a circle, of which we have abused and, it must be said, plundered, scrounged the treasures, by the husband first, then the children, with their angelic gestures, have stained it, soiled it well often, let’s say it, soiled, the Earth…”

(Extract from “Earth, I will never forget you” by Félix Leclerc, Dernier notebook, 1988, pp.190-191)

What a waste that we continue to consume compulsively instead of taking the time to think about better individual and collective choices. What a waste that, through our individualism and our egocentrism, for career ambitions and excessive comfort, we witness without reacting to the spectacle of the planet which can no longer support our overproduction and is unleashed.

What a waste, for us and our Earth, to waste the most beautiful inhabited regions of a country whose greatest wealth is its still preserved nature, guarantor of quality of life and immense recreational tourism potential. What a waste it is to build gigantic, overwhelming wind turbines and then connect the energy produced by those wind farms with transmission lines snaking overhead.

What a waste to prevent the efficient management of this energy by breaking it up to enrich a few promoters who will export our capital. What a waste to also encourage certain communities to go into debt instead of the government to build these immense towers, which only have a short lifespan of around 20 years, which require colossal maintenance costs and demolition costs which very quickly become problematic. What a waste to pay huge sums to subsidize developers and also buy electricity at a higher cost than if we produced it. What a waste to privatize our energy wealth rather than continuing to share it equitably even in the most remote regions.

What a waste that during periods of electricity surplus, inevitable because we cannot store this imposing energy, we are forced to pay considerable sums for temporarily useless electricity because we have to honor private contracts. What a waste when, if we had chosen to remain masters of our own home, we could effectively manage periods of greater or lesser winds and periods when the water level in hydroelectric basins fluctuates; we would then have the possibility of letting the basins fill up or occasionally interrupting the wind turbines, thus extending their too short durability.

What a waste to let a neoliberal government continue to want to privatize our collective wealth at full speed. What a waste to create inequalities between municipalities by abandoning to developers the role of financing some and ignoring the others. What a waste to let this same government, through its policy of laissez-faire by private enterprise, create immense inequities in the financing of farmers rather than properly planning equitable aid.

What a waste that, on the one hand, our municipal representatives refuse to adequately consult all their citizens by referendum and, on the other hand, implausibly, allow themselves to be subjected to rules which allow companies to install these industrial monsters at 1 .5 meters from neighboring properties and thus allow immense injustices to materialize (2).

What a waste, that by endorsing this nonsense and agreeing to bear the odiousness in the name of the leaders who subject them, our municipal elected officials agree to trigger an upheaval which will probably lead to multiple legal proceedings against the MRC. What a waste to create discord between farmers which, in view of the depreciation of the considerable values of agricultural land, will possibly also lead to legal proceedings between neighbors and a deterioration of the social fabric.

What a waste for a government to be multiplying the same degradation of our quality of life in more than 20 of the most beautiful, densely populated regions of Quebec without properly consulting experts and the population (1). What a waste to quickly destroy our heritage and the future of future generations. What a waste to put our health, that of wildlife and domestic livestock at risk by increasing infrasound, considered very damaging by several experts, without applying the slightest precautionary principle (3). What a waste to confiscate the residential value of those who will have to live near these industrial machines, running day and night and destroying the tranquility of our countryside.

What a waste to create multiple uninhabitable or undesirable areas atrophied by endless easements. What a waste when more than 80% of Quebec’s territory is almost unoccupied and we could remain masters of our resources by building these wind turbines along large, very windy hydroelectric basins equipped with energy transport corridors ( 4). What a waste to eat away at our tiny 2% of agricultural land in this way.

What a waste to destroy the dreams of city dwellers who would one day like to find a little peace and quiet in our magnificent rural regions without the constant fear of being soon invaded by these rowdy and unsavory neighbors.

Are we a people in the process of dividing our main economic lever and making it difficult to operate to benefit a few businessmen and thus lose an important source of income?

Claude Rochon

Resident of Mékinac

Notes explicatives:

(1) Territories concerned: Mékinac, Des Chenaux, Nicolet-Yamaska, Rouville, Jardins de Napierville, Maskoutains, Beauharnois-Salaberry, Sources, Maskinongé, Drummond, Bécancour, Arthabaska, Lotbinière, de l’Érable, des Appalaches, de Coaticook, des Etchemins, de Kamouraska, de la Côte-de-Beaupré, Bellechasse, Marguerite d’Youville, Côte-Nord, Fjord-du-Saguenay.

(2) As the majority of Quebec’s land has been divided into rectangular lots 2 or 3 acres wide and as the wind turbines would possibly be installed on each side of a property having transferred easements, neighbors would not be able to build on a plot of land. distance of 500 meters (1640 feet or 8.55 arpents) on either side of these wind turbines, i.e. over a length of 17 arpents or 3280 feet. If the affected lots are 3 acres wide, the injustice would affect approximately 3 neighbors on either side (i.e. 6 neighbors).