On the Conservative Payroll? NIMBY? Nuclear Lobbyist? Unemployed and Without a Life? No, Not Me.
All things above have been mused about me since my interview for the Toronto Star’s “McGuinty vows to stop wind-farm NIMBY’s”. I have since completed media interviews with Radio Canada, CBC French Television, and CBC Radio’s ‘Here and Now’ this afternoon. Unlike those who take shots at me, I have the courage to stand by what I say and have nothing to gain or lose by sharing them. For me it is principle, not principal.
To clear up each of the suggestions made about me in comments on the article or youtube videos of mine relating to the project, I will address each of these in order.
On Conservative Ties:
I am not and have never been on a Conservative Party Payroll. I’ve never voted Conservative, or supported a Conservative Candidate for public office. I have been on the Provincial Government payroll as a political staffer to a Liberal MPP and the little known Liberal Caucus Services Bureau. I have also been the President of a Federal Liberal Riding Association.
On NIMBY:
I am not a “not in my backyard” type. I don’t consider my backyard to be anywhere near 2-4 kilometres offshore. My friends in Guildwood aren’t NIMBY types either. It’s a nice label to throw around when you don’t have a response to valid environmental concern, I guess. Can anyone actually answer why Wind Turbines are allowed to do untold damage to the environment during the construction and operation phase without any government oversight?
The Nuke Lobby:
I’m also not a Nuclear Lobbyist. Probably not qualified – certainly not interested. I don’t even own a microwave. That being said, senior Liberal Party officials do have uncomfortably close ties to the wind industry and the political masters who set government policy. What’s more, they do business together. One helps elect a Liberal government and builds turbines in their spare time, the other shovels money out the door to pay for turbines without any oversight.
On Being Unemployed:
First. To suggest one’s employment status has any correlation to their right to participate in the political process is disgusting. We are far from the time when one had to own property to vote. With so many Ontarian’s losing their jobs this comment is particularly insensitive to those hardworking people out of work due to no fault of their own. Shame on you. Second. I’m not unemployed. My employment has no conflict of interest with the political positions I take. Franz Hartmann and Joyce McLean (two strong proponents of this project) both have questionable affiliations that compromise their ability to act in the best interest of Ontarians. Both of these individual’s incomes are tied to work they do advancing the cause of wind power. At least one senior Liberal has a conflict so bad, both the Opposition Leader and the Leader of the NDP have publicly challenged the government on it in the Legislature.
Not Having a Life:
As for not having a life – that is in the eye of the beholder I guess. I feel it is pretty well rounded, and certainly not something I will take advice from a guy who won’t name himself and seems unable to use proper punctuation. My friends can spell, save the occasional text message or blackberry error. They also sign communications they send my way.
My Community or My Party?:
As someone who has traditionally been a Liberal both in the card carrying sense and the ideological sense, being pitted between my community and party is not a comfortable position to be in. I joined the Liberal Party when I was 14. I came home from the hospital to Guildwood. Choosing between the two was not difficult. It was principled.
Some Other Thoughts:
If this the best the wind lobby can come up with, keep it coming. Your lack of courage is representative of the folks at Toronto Hydro Energy Services who read each of my posts but will not reply to my charges. I guess they are only comfortable lying in person. Incidentally, it appears my good friend Anne Mometer found some time in her busy day at Gartner Lee – an AECOM company and Toronto Hydro Energy Services environmental partner, to visit today.
For the record: I do not oppose renewable energy in principle. I do oppose bad public policy. I oppose attacks on our democratic principles. I believe there is merit to following well established international standards and don’t think we can forget key facts. I know the wind folks and government types don’t like facts because they don’t agree with their position, but they are what they are.
This is a bad bill. Premier McGuinty needs to withdraw the legislation and apologize to Ontario residents like me who have valid concerns that he has chosen to label “NIMBY” even though, my stance is identical to the Ontario Power Authority’s position on offshore wind and the Canada Wind Atlas agrees with me (or me with it) that there just isn’t the wind out there for this to make sense. It is highly irresponsible for Premier McGuinty to support anything that will stir heavy metals and PCBs into Toronto’s drinking water without an environmental assessment to give us a sense what that will do to human health. This is the same man who was responsible when it came to making sure Ontarion’s knew what happened at Walkerton, but appears not to have appreciated the message that water quality is critically important to human health. He knows better. It is irresponsible for him to allow for untold damage to be done to an area of the lake that has seen millions spent to restore fish habitat and preserve erosion. Seriously, what harm would doing an environmental assessment cause?
This is a bad idea. The bill is undemocratic. The community needs to stand firm and the opposition parties need to step up where our government has failed. Liberal MPPs with communities facing wind projects they oppose need to recognize the impact this could have on their careers and stand up in caucus and tell the Premier he needs to blink.
I wonder if who is working on the economic crisis in Ontario if the Premier is running around smacking the grassroots activists throughout this province? Perhaps this is a bit deflection for a guy who just isn’t sure what to do on that front?
Tags: Dalton McGuinty, Franz Hartmann, Guildwood, Guildwood Wind Farm, Joyce McLean, Lake Ontario Wind Farm, NIMBY, Scarborough Bluffs Wind Farm, Toronto Hydro Energy Services, Toronto Star, Wind Energy, Wind Turbines
February 11th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Judging from the comments on the Toronto Star piece, you are not alone and there are many others who have doubts about this windfarm and want a detailed environmental assessment. The name calling and labelling you are being subjected to is a tactic bullies use to avoid real debate.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
What does the local Councillor have to say about all this? Hang in there John, you’re doing a great job for your community. I’ll be asking my friends to take note and check out your blog.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I’m not familiar with the problem your fighting and just happened to click on this post. Reading it reminded me of an article in Der Spiegel (english) on the subject which given Germany’s leadership in alternative enegy offers insight that may be pertinent to you. See the links also at the bottom of this article
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,606763,00.html
February 12th, 2009 at 6:45 am
Hi Patrick.
Councillor Ainslie has had three positions so far as I can tell on the wind project. He has been in favour of the project, opposed to the project, and silent on the project. His most recent statements are in opposition to the project. So far – no action has been taken by Councillor Ainslie to engage other Councillors or the Mayor in voicing residents concerns during a process that has been underway since August 2008.
He sits on the Toronto Atmospheric Fund – a funder for the project and as a member of Toronto City Council which funds the project. While these organizations were voting to give Toronto Hydro Energy Services the money to carry out the Anemometer study Councillor Ainslie was MIA in the community and gave no heads up this was happening.
He has yet to make any public statement to respond to the Premier’s slap at Scarborough Bluffs residents or the proposed Green Energy Act that would strip municipalities and community groups from their rights to oppose poorly thought out projects. Like your neighbours in Ward 16, Ward 43 residents suffer from a lack of local representation. The voices of residents cannot be heard over the political posturing of self interested Councillors.
Thank you for your support. I appreciate your kind words. – I’m going to send you an email that may help you with your work in your community.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
John, you are a hero in many eyes. The taunts and insults are getting so old. People who do not understand the issues and therefore can’t speak intelligently about it resort to them. If I had a dime everytime I was accused of being an oil/coal/nazi/whatever lackey. Tired and silly. Bravo to you and the Scarborough people.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
John,
Of course no environmental study has been done yet – they haven’t yet proved there’s sufficient wind to warrant moving forward on an expensive assessment.
Can you clearly explain why you are opposed to the anemometer study when your most meritorious argument is that there isn’t sufficient wind to justify building turbines.
Why aren’t you supportive of the study? If the province finds poor numbers, they may abandon the project entirely. If they find weak numbers and don’t abandon the project, you’ll have legitimate ammunition for your cause. And finally, if they find numbers that justify the building of turbines, you can still push for an environmental assessment before any building takes place.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Ryan – I oppose the wind study because virtually all sources say there isn’t the wind out there. It’s a million dollars of taxpayer money and they refuse to tell us in advance what the minimum wind strenght needs to be for viability.
Toronto Hydro has lied and cheated it’s way through this process and acted in horribly uneithical ways.
I can’t support what will be a biased study with a meaningless result. How can it have meaning if they reject virtually all available scientific data, have already demonstrated an inability to show good judgement when siting previous wind turbines and a complete disdain for the community they want to host their project. They also appear to believe the Ontario Power Authority (who is responsible for generating capacity in Ontario) is wrong in their assessment that offshore wind isn’t economically viable on the great lakes. Toronto Hydro can’t even build economically viable wind on land. The EX turbine has the worst operating capacity in Ontario.
Further — There is no legal requirement for an environmental assessment. Don’t you get that? What part of that confuses you? The law states for wind turbines it is not required. So they can do whatever they want without any assessment. They can also ignore the science (which they are doing already). Perhaps if you read before you challenged folks who have done their homework your points would have merit.
I just can’t support bad public policy when virtually all evidence points to this being a really bad idea.
February 13th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Good post, John. The fact that THES refuses to disclose the wind speeds necessary to make the project viable tells you all you need to know. Like a spoiled brat they want to write the rules as they go along.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Not only did THE refuse to disclose the viable wind speeds necessary for the project, they have also refused to disclose the results of their aenometer study, citing it to be “commercially sensitive data”.
February 15th, 2009 at 12:24 am
And let’s face it – we all know what ‘commercially sensitive’ means to these guys…
September 13th, 2009 at 10:56 am
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