Wind Concerns Team Entering Election Race

MEDIA RELEASE
August 14th, 2025, 2:10pm MST
From: Wind Concerns

Highlights

• Industrial wind turbine opponents to enter St. Paul County elections
• Mark Mallett and Chris Habiak want to bring Premier Danielle Smith’s statement on wind turbines to fruition
• They are running as candidates to bring fresh vision and prosperity to the region

A former award winning television reporter is entering the race for Councillor in the County of St. Paul’s Fall election. Mark Mallett has been nominated to represent Division One, which lies east of Elk Point. Mallett might be better known in the area for having launched Wind Concerns, a citizen’s initiative to oppose an industrial wind turbine project in the Northern Valley. In fact, it’s one of the main reasons Mallett has decided to run for Councillor.

“In my numerous discussions with the province’s Ministry of Utilities and Affordability headed by Nathan Neudorf, it’s become clear that they want municipalities to take a leading role in voicing concerns over energy initiatives, such as wind turbines. As such, I have decided to run for office so that I can give the families, acreage owners, and farmers — whom I’ve already been fighting for — a voice at the municipal level.” Mallett’s colleague, St. Paul businessman Chris Habiak who is part of the Wind Concerns team, is also planning to enter the race to represent Division 2. “This will bring a strong voice to the County level,” says Mallett, “representing the vast number of citizens here who do not want this beautiful region turned into an industrial wind turbine wasteland.”

Mallett notes that their efforts have already produced a new bylaw in the region preventing commercial wind turbines from exceeding approximately 100m (the turbines being proposed for the Northern Valley are twice that height). But he says they want to go further to protect rural communities here, and hopefully provide encouragement to other municipalities fighting to preserve the integrity of their regions.

“We want to finally see responsible science-based setbacks implemented to prevent wind turbines from being built next to people’s farms or acreages. After all, it is Premier Smith who has led this charge, declaring in a press conference that ‘you cannot build a wind turbine the size of the Calgary Tower… in your neighbour’s backyard.’ We agree and hope to make the Premier’s declaration more than just a warning, but a bylaw.”

Mallett says recent testimony at the Alberta Utilities Commission by a peer-reviewed German scientist confirms recent studies showing that wind turbines should be built no closer than 10km to an inhabited dwelling. “The reason,” notes Mallett, “is that not only new research but international court cases and thousands of testimonies from Ontario show that both the audible but especially inaudible pulses generated by wind turbines cause health problems in many humans and even birth defects and sterility in animals.”

But Mallett says he is also running for election because he has seen first hand what happens when a town dies on the prairies. Before moving to the Northern Valley four summers ago, he and his family lived near a small Saskatchewan town that at one time bustled with grocery stores, car and farm dealerships, banks and more. “When we finally moved back to Alberta, there was nothing left in that town but a church and a nearly empty senior center. If you needed a $.35 cent bolt, you had to make a 50 minute round trip to the nearest town. I don’t want to see this happen in Elk Point or any of the small towns in our County… but some of them are hanging on by a thread.”

What’s needed, he says, is elected officials who aren’t satisfied with simply maintaining the status quo but who can attract innovative thinking, are willing to take risks, and who tap into the potential of the area, particularly as a tourist destination. “I want to work with various leaders, from Mayors/Reeves and our indigenous neighbours — First Nations Chiefs and Band Councils including Métis Settlements — to see how the people who entrust us with leadership can be better served in the years ahead. We have so much potential here. I know both Chris and I are excited to not only preserve the beauty of this region, but to see it prosper. And that will take vision and work. But this is a region well-worth fighting for. Outside of the mountains, I think this is one of the province’s most beautiful areas.”

Elections will be held on October 20, 2025.

Mark Mallett: [email protected], 780-614-5310
Chris Habiak: [email protected], 780-646-2626