The following letter was addressed to Mayor Margaret Black, King Township council and citizens of the township and was submitted to the Sentinel for publication.

On behalf of the membership of the Holland Marsh Growers' Association, we would like to simply reiterate to this council our firm opposition to the Pristine Power peaker plant facility - for too numerous reasons to mention in our short time allotment.

We have met with the company president, its vicepresident, its environmental company, and its public relations firm - and have come away from that meeting more convinced than ever that this facility is being located in the wrong place, at the wrong time in Ontario's history. Our organization, a farmerdriven, farmer-based organization, will be making a very public fight of our opposition to this facility - pitting the farming community against an American corporation and a provincial government that seems to neither care nor listen to logical arguments being made by opponents of this venture nor to the general public - whose overwhelming hatred of this project is well known and well documented.

Our opposition is obvious - the short and long-term detrimental damage to one of the most unique agricultural areas in Canada, if not North America - the Holland Marsh. This facility will be constructed just a stone's throw from Ontario's Salad Bowl. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs actually has a segment on its Web site about the damage that the emissions from this facility does to plant growth. Yet, this seems to have been put aside for the moment. After meeting with Pristine Power, it has become clear that their environmental studies do not address the unique, organic-based soil of the Holland Marsh. In fact, given that the air model studies are just that, models, it would seem dramatically clear to our membership that there has not been any studies related to this - other than on a computer. This is real life we are dealing with, and computer generated data may work for Hollywood and pictures, but it lacks any relevance to the reality we, as farmers, deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Wind data from Toronto Airport, instead of from the Holland Marsh Muck Station; mineral soil based data that bares no relevance to the Holland Marsh soil structure; the need for a minimum of two million litres of water (and where will that come from?); the unique micro-climate that allows the Holland Marsh to be the producer of more than 50 per cent of Ontario's mainstay vegetable production and something that will forever be altered by the turbine heat jets that will stick out beside the black soil and destroy our lands, our livelihoods, our environment . . . and for what?

There is absolutely no proof that this entire process was legal to begin with, based on the fact that Minister Smitherman's call to action was conducted on an erroneous study from 2005 stating that the need outweighed the supply.

In our opinion, this is not a fight against a company that may or may not be constructing this facility, from money in partnership with an Alabama firm, to provide electricity to our American brethren. But it's against a provincial government that has not looked at all environmental issues surrounding this facility, has not looked at better alternatives, has not conducted due diligence as far as the process goes and has clearly not looked at simply viewing the entire procedure with a new set of eyes, given the economic downturn, the dramatic curtailing of power with the unfortunate loss of a number of manufacturing facilities in York Region, and the clearly detailed fact that our housing market - along with new construction - is in a major slump.

We want to let you know, as an organization - and on record - that our opposition is based as much on the reality that this is just bad for the area as the perception that our competitors will subsequently be able to tell the general public that the food grown in the Holland Marsh, with its megapolluting peaker plant facility, is fatal to consumers. When we decided to make the Holland Marsh the first area in Ontario with not only a regional logo but a program where safe, healthy food is being grown for a population that wants LOCAL food, we did not envision adding the twinsmoke stacks of death to hail alongside the CN Tower in our retailer logo.

Farmers are the largest tax base in this community - one that has grown around the Holland Marsh for the last nine decades. We have survived economic downturns, depressions, recessions, hurricanes, flooding, hail, violent extremes in weather and consumer preferences, and a litany of government regulations that have no basis in logic or common sense. We have prevailed against each and every challenge for nearly 100 years; we have prevailed against low prices, high input costs, and uncertain markets. We have faced the worst that Mother Nature has thrown against us and still come out on top.

This may be the first time in our long history where we won't win - unless this council expresses, in words that clearly stated, we will not allow our farmers to go quietly into the night; we will fight with every legal and political option possible to ensure that our constituents views are not just represented at this table, but at the provincial level as well. We want council as a partner in the future to make the Holland Marsh the greatest producing area in the world, renowned for safe, healthy, nutritious, and locally grown products that consumers demand by name.

Don't let our heritage fall to the wayside because government thought the need for air conditioning was far more important than their daily meals. If we do not stop this facility, there will come a day when this province, its citizens, and our fellow Canadians regret the short-sighted decisions made today that allowed for energy to become more important than food. It would be childish of us to say, "we told you so" - but, it would also be too late.

Thank you for your consideration.

Alex Makarenko,

Chair, Holland Marsh Growers'

Association.

Jamie Reaume

Executive Director, Holland Marsh Growers'

Association