Archive for January, 2009
The Second of Five Interviews with Guildwood Residents at Toronto Hydro’s Meeting – Released
At the January 20th 2009 botched public consultation meeting by Toronto Hydro Energy Services, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with a Guildwood resident named Jacques. He is, as you will see, a very passionate and informed member of his community. I really enjoyed speaking with him. Jacques discussed some of the scientific elements of the project and provided some very interested insight into the idea of low ambient noise. He explains the health impacts of sound in a very easy to understand way. His comments are both well informed and engaging. What’s more – Jacques isn’t for or against the project as a whole – he is just concerned.
Take a look.
3 Comments »
The First of Five Interviews with Guildwood Residents at Toronto Hydro's Meeting – Released
Below is an interview that took place between John Mason, an active member of the Guildwood community and I. Mason provides his perspective on the process Toronto Hydro has used, raises concerns about the viability of the project, and concerns about the industrialization of the last natural, untouched shoreline in Toronto. Our conversation included some discussion about the history of Scarborough and the Bluffs significance to that story. Take a look.
Key Points:
- John received a notice dated January 2nd on January 19th, four days past the registration deadline. He had to call Toronto Hydro and his City Councillor to attend. The notice came as unaddressed ad mail.
- Questioned about how interested Toronto Hydro really is in listening to Guildwood residents.
- Concerned Toronto Hydro doesn’t appreciate the impact this project will have on the community and by the lack of collaboration between Hydro and the community.
- Feels Toronto Hydro is unable to call an adequate public meeting to even provide one way communication.
- Doesn’t understand why we would industrialize Scarborough’s shoreline while trying to de-industrialize Toronto’s.
- Believes the historical significance of Scarborough’s Bluffs is not being considered.
- Questions why more suitable locations aren’t being considered and this site is.
- Calls on community to get involved.
Remember, if you haven’t voted on where you think “Anne Mometer” works, there is still time. Click the following link to visit the article and vote. http://laforet.ca/2009/01/27/who-is-anne-mometer/
No Comments »Anne Mometer’s Employer Revealed
Below I will disclose where ‘Anne Mometer’ works. I will release the results of the “where does Anne Mometer work?” poll. I will also use the number of visits and the spread of time between visits to determine Anne’s work output, which I will then compare to the Exhibition Turbine’s performance of just 12% on average over the last five years. Read along. Enjoy as I rule out her non employers and give reasons why Anne wouldn’t be a good fit there.
Thank you for those who took time to guess where you thought Anne Mometer worked. I have been highly critical of Toronto Hydro Energy Services complete incompetence as it relates to the public consultation process of this project, and now I must admit to a failure of my own. You see, in a spirit of fair warning, I announced that the poll would close at 8:00pm tonight. I then set it to close tonight at that time. But it closed early and I was unable to fix the problem. Toronto Hydro Energy Services and I share a challenge in maintaining an ‘open’ consultation. Mine was technical and unfortunate, Toronto Hydro’s challenge was by design and is considerably more suspect. In recognition of this shared challenge, however, I will agree that I will not propose or try to build any poorly thought out, poorly located or ill advised, wind power projects in Lake Ontario. Heck, I’ll go so far as to call for the Scarborough Bluffs to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and promise not to recommend any energy projects on Lake Ontario. I wonder if Toronto Hydro Energy Services will join me in making a similar commitment?
I’m sure a lot of people wanted to know why I asked where individuals thought Anne Mometer worked, especially considering I can already confirm without a shadow of a doubt her place of employment. Some may have thought it was an attempt to have some fun at Anne’s expense, but in truth, it was a measure of trust. I wanted to know which company, readers believed, would be most likely to have an employee who hiding behind an unoriginal moniker while insulting someone who has made cogent arguments against a bad project. You answered. You answered clearly.
An overwhelming majority of readers believed that Anne Mometer would be found at Toronto Hydro Energy Services with 56% of respondents choosing this option. The City of Toronto was deemed the second most likely hidden lair of Anne Mometer by 22% of respondents. The Ontario Power Authority came in third with 14% of readers believing Anne spent her days reading my blog from this provincial agency. 6% of readers thought Anne worked at the Independent Electricity Operator, while just 2% thought Anne worked at Gartner Lee (AECOM).
I think we can all agree anyone who has time to visit a website some thirty times between 9:30AM and 3:30PM yesterday can’t be a terribly useful employee or one who has a heck of a lot to do. Today Anne’s IP address visited thirty three times between 9:45AM and 3:45PM. It appears her work is uninterrupted for a total of two hours of the business day on average. Her work output of 25% capacity is actually twice Toronto Hydro Energy Services five year average energy output to capacity at it’s single wind turbine project. Perhaps this is why people thought Anne worked at Toronto Hydro? Considering 12% capacity is considered defensible within this organization, it seems reasonable that many would have thought this as a natural home for Anne. But Anne doesn’t work there.
The City of Toronto takes a lot of flak for the sometimes head scratching things that come out of City Council, such as a bloated budget and the traditional dislike of bureaucrats. I think bureaucrats on the whole are hard working folks who would be ashamed to work with someone as lazy as Anne. – She doesn’t work there either.
The Ontario Power Authority isn’t technically a partner in this project and has the good sense to recognize projects like this are simply a bad idea. Such insight would presumably preclude allowing members of staff to sit at their computer’s reading blogs all day. She doesn’t work there.
Okay. So there are two choices left: is it – The Ontario Electricity System Operator – The guys responsible for making sure the lights stay on and for the day-to-day management of the electricity market in Ontario? These are the guys who have to deal with the constant under delivery of promised electricity supply from industrial wind generators. Considering, 58% of the time, wind developers under deliver causing increased expense to the system – they probably loathe folks like Anne who don’t really seem to do much. A lack of productivity from others causes these folks to have to pick up the slack and solve the wind industry’s regular failures to deliver on their short term forecasts. Anne doesn’t work there either.
So that leaves one option – AECOM (Gartner Lee). Anne Mometer works at a firm that describes itself as “a Canadian-based firm at the forefront of our industry in providing environmental science, economics, planning and engineering services.” Really? Anne Mometer? The person who sits online reading a single blog thirty times in a single day? We’re trusting her to even spell environment?
Seriously. Anne Mometer, who has the high honour and distinction of being my single biggest reader (by frequency) of late, works at a firm that is responsible for determining the environmental concerns of projects and designing plans that strike a balance between the two.
Is anyone else concerned that Anne Mometer can work at a firm responsible for such serious aspects of a project like this, and not even understand enough about wind power to know that you can’t just increase wind to generate electricity but do in fact need turbines to spin to translate the wind strength into usable energy?
Is anyone else concerned that Anne Mometer – an employee of AECOM is the only official to respond to my open invitation for unedited response from anyone at Toronto Hydro Energy Services? I will give her top marks for speed. I posted the following at 7:15AM on January 27th 2009. “I welcome anyone at Toronto Hydro Energy Services to challenge any of the claims I’ve made here. I will publish any unedited response I receive from anyone at Toronto Hydro Energy Services so long as it addresses the points in here.”
Anne Mometer of AECOM’s response was received at 10:11AM the same day. While she is technically not from Toronto Hydro Energy Services, AECOM is a partner in the project and I did hold up my pledge to publish any unedited response I received.
I will welcome anyone from AECOM who would like to respond to this to do so. Feel free to email me at john.laforet@laforet.ca to do so. I will publish unedited verifiable response I receive from AECOM.
Think I’ve been tough on Anne? Anne isn’t real. But the concerns above are.
4 Comments »
