Windy Business

September 5, 2025 | Charlotte Cuthbert, Communications Coordinator with CFFO

Those who oppose Industrial Wind Turbines argue that the costs—both hidden and visible—far outweigh the benefits. While proponents often promote turbines as a clean energy solution, the reality is more complicated. The environmental footprint of their construction, the destruction of prime farmland, the disruption to wildlife habitats, and the sheer scale of industrialization on rural landscapes cannot be ignored.

Even more concerning is the human cost. Studies and lived experiences point to a pattern of health complaints for those who live near turbines. The symptoms—sleep disturbance, chronic stress, headaches, depression, and cognitive impairment—are not isolated anecdotes, but recurring reports across jurisdictions. To dismiss them as insignificant is to disregard the lived reality of rural families whose only mistake was choosing to make their homes in the wrong proximity to a towering machine. Noise has been described as piercing and unpredictable—an intrusion that residents cannot escape. In fact, a 2011 Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal recognized that wind turbines can cause harm to human health if placed too close to homes.

There is also the matter of fairness. Rural Ontario has become the testing ground for projects that many urban residents champion, but few would tolerate in their own backyards. Would downtown Toronto residents accept a line of turbines outside their condo towers? Would suburban families be comfortable watching their property values plummet because of a government-approved industrial project? The answer is obvious. Yet, for decades, rural families have been told to shoulder that burden “for the greater good.”

The phrase “greater good” becomes hollow when the primary beneficiaries are large corporations profiting from government subsidies, while the costs—financial, social, and personal—are borne by local communities. Farmers who sign contracts may see short-term gains, but their neighbors are left with long-term losses. Property values decline. Communities fracture. And once turbines go up, there is no easy way to take them down.

The divide deepens when questions of choice and fairness arise. Should it be up to individual landowners to decide if a turbine goes on their property, or should the broader community have a voice? What happens when one farmer says yes, but an entire neighborhood says no? Such situations can strain relationships, erode trust, and leave lasting scars in communities where neighbors have supported each other for generations.

Ontario’s 159 municipalities who have declared themselves “Unwilling Hosts” are not acting out of fear, but out of experience. They have seen what happens when projects are forced onto communities without genuine consent. They have lived through the bitter divides that rip apart once-close neighborhoods. And they are saying, firmly, that enough is enough.

Industrial Wind Turbines are not just about energy. They are about health, fairness, democracy, and the preservation of rural life. If decision-makers truly want to support renewable energy, they must look to alternatives that do not compromise the well-being of the very people who grow our food, steward our land, and sustain the rural way of life. What is clear, however, is that the choices made today will shape the landscape—not only of our fields, but of our rural communities—for decades to come.

Charlotte Cuthbert is the Communications Coordinator for CFFO. The CFFO Commentary represents the opinions of the writer and does not necessarily represent CFFO policy.