Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
My family could have stood in the way of billions of dollars of development at Yorkton. We didn’t.
Here’s the text of a Facebook Live session on July 22, shortly after getting news that the slow-walking of approval for the Seven Stars Energy Project (a.k.a. Weyburn wind project) was granted the day before, seven months after the other RM granted approval. On July 23, a major grand opening is taking place in Yorkton, regarding a new Louis Dreyfus pea processing facility which happens to be precisely within my mother’s literal backyard.
This is Brian Zinchuk of Pipeline Online, Saskatchewan’s Energy News.
A couple of interesting developments happening today. I got notice that the RM of Griffin has finally approved seven months after the RM of Weyburn, the Weyburn Wind Project, known as Seven Stars.
That has been slow walked to the extreme, but they finally approved it. It was fought for NIMBY, not my backyard issues. Now, reason I want to talk about that is that I also got email this morning inviting me to attend the opening of this – you can see behind me here. This is the brand new pea processing facility that has just been completed by Louis Dreyfus here in Yorkton.
Here we are in my mother’s quite literal backyard. The distance from where I’m standing to the closest part of that building is about 50 metres. We’re not talking 1,500 metres to a wind turbine. We’re not talking 400 or 800. We’re talking 50 meters. She is the closest neighbour to the Louis Dreyfus terminal as well as to the JRI James Richardson International canola crushing plants, billions of dollars been spent within one mile of where I’m standing here, so that farmers can have secondary markets for their canola and now their peas.
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What would have happened if she had raised the stink and said, you know, I really don’t want it in my backyard. What if we had fought it tooth and nail, done everything from concern about environmental issues to property values and everything else? What would that have done for the local farmers who will probably be some of you watching this be hauling to this pea processing facility right behind me here, or the canola crush plant, which is just a couple 100 meters that way? What would that have done?
Now ask yourself here: If the Weyburn wind farm does get killed because of the NIMBY issue, because it’s taken so long to approve, what’s going to happen when we want to build nuclear reactors that are going to be anywhere from $8 to $20 billion by time we’re done? Are we going to allow NIMBY to destroy the Saskatchewan economy? Are we going to say, “Well, no, we can’t have that nuclear reactor anywhere near our place because, my God, you know it’s horrible. Well, if wind farms are so horrible, and I don’t like wind farms at all, but if they’re so horrible, we have to shut them down, should we have shut down? Should my family have shut down this canola crush plant? It could have happened. I know people who basically shut down the construction of the Yorkton Bypass. They didn’t want to go through their farm, and they stopped it. We went ahead and allowed it because it took part of our acreage.
Phase 3 of the Yorkton Bypass was never built because of NIMBY. And as a result, for the last 15 or so years, Yorkton has not had a proper bypass like Estevan got. Both were announced on the same day.
So, when we talk about NIMBY, it’s a lot more than just oh, I don’t like something. If you’re going to shut it down at one place, you better think about consequences for everyone else because if my family had worked to shut down this canola crush plant, where would Saskatchewan be now? Where would pea farmers be now? So, give that thought when we’re talking about all the wind projects and nuclear, because it’s all tied. Thank you very much.
- 0131 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaig0131 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaig
- 0130 SKTL_Starlink_Ranch_16x9_Clean0130 SKTL_Starlink_Ranch_16x9_Clean
- 0129 Turnbull drivers operators0129 Turnbull drivers operators
- 0128 OSY Rentals updated0128 OSY Rentals updated
- 0126 Steel_Reef_Promo_0126 Steel_Reef_Promo_
- 0125 SASPO-2896_Right of Way_Awareness_20250125 SASPO-2896_Right of Way_Awareness_2025
- 0118 IBEW 30 sec0118 IBEW 30 sec
- 0114 Prospera Bold Vision0114 Prospera Bold Vision
- 0113 Miller Epic Cinematic Hollywood trailer0113 Miller Epic Cinematic Hollywood trailer
- 0102 Lori Carr Coal Extended0102 Lori Carr Coal Extended
- 0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
- 0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
- 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
- 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
- 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
- 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
- 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
- 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
- 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
- 0022 Grimes winter hiring
- 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
- 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
- 0002 gilliss casing services0002 gilliss casing services
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