An Open Letter from Tom

Digby Municipality: Kindly distribute a copy of this to all the councilors.



To Maritza Adams, District #2 Councilor, Municipality of Digby



Dear Maritza,

I thank you for your work on our behalf as our
elected municipal councilor. However, here in your District #2 on the
south shore of St. Mary's Bay, I have heard rumours
that you are not supportive of the Wind By-law. I do hope that these rumours
are without foundation.



As a District #2 resident, voter and
businessman, I respectfully ask that you support the Wind Energy By-law.
I make this appeal because of my support for quality of life and quality of the
environment within our larger area around St. Mary’s Bay and my ongoing active
support for the development of sustainable economic development, the type which
enhances rather than diminishes this quality of life within the beautiful but
delicate SW Nova Biosphere Reserve of which we are a part.



More specifically, this wind park on Digby Neck
will directly and negatively impact businesses in your district #2, despite
being far from the proposed Digby Neck site. So I also ask for your
support of the Wind By-law because of the impact that this wind farm blemish on
the Digby Neck environment will certainly have on my Japanese Art
Gallery business and many
other businesses in your district.



A high percentage of my gallery customers
drop in as they drive through Route 1 and 101 on their way to or from
Digby Neck and Islands, drawn here from around
the world to this area because of its natural beauty and accessibility and
because of its inclusion in the UNESCO designated Biosphere Reserve.



In past years, I have seen as much as a 50% drop in my
business caused by disruptions on Digby Neck such as resurfacing
the road down the Neck and/or Islands.
Thousands of tourists chose to avoid the St. Mary's Bay area entirely. They
chose the South Shore route when they learned from Nova
Scotia Tourist Bureau personnel of possible disruptions to traffic on Digby
Neck during that period of heavy equipment use on route 217.



The construction and maintenance of this
wind park will certainly impact businesses throughout your voter district here
on this south side of St. Mary's Bay in like manner but in a much more drastic
fashion and for a much more sustained period of time. As our local councillor
accountable
to us as voters, we ask your help in preventing this.



Digby Neck and Islands
is unique and will draw people through our district #2 for years to come IF not
blemished by industrial desecration and greed. This will happen if wise voters
and equally wise and visionary councilors choose by-laws to protect the
sustainability of our lands and coastlines and sea while promoting
environmentally sustainable industry and jobs.



I am not opposed to wind energy. I am opposed to wind energy located
purely for
reasons of maximizing corporate profit within people's dwelling space
when there is so much non-dwelling space where such equipment could be located,
for example, in the upper-Sissiboo
River watershed.



Based on your vote as my
representative on this By-law issue and subsequent decisions you will make on
environmentally sustainable economic growth during the rest of your term as
councilor, as a voter and activist seeking environmentally sustainable jobs for
our municipality I look forward to the possibility of promoting your candidacy
for re-election in my district in the next municipal election.



I do wish to hear your thoughts,
Maritza, on these issues and await your timely response to my views and to
my specific request for your support on this By-law issue on which so many have
worked for so long.



With kind regards,



Tom



Tom Haynes-Paton

Japanese Woodblock Prints & Antiques Gallery

PO Box 11, Barton, B0W1H0, Nova Scotia

902-245-2347 Japanesegallery@gmail.com
website japanesewoodblockprints.ca