Archive for September, 2009
Wind Concerns Ontario Ends Smitherman’s Positive Press Coverage – Returns Him to Reality
This ‘Draft George’ stuff has me conflicted. On the one hand, I would love to see him resign as Minister of Energy and force another Toronto by-election – but the prospect of him as Mayor of Toronto is frightening. He is a weak administrator and a bully – two qualities no one needs to have should they be applying for the top job in this City. Smitherman attacks fellow politicians with endless venom, and as Jim Coyle so eloquently said, Smitherman couldn’t find the moral high ground with a GPS. There hasn’t been a single debate or exchange in the House where Smitherman has argued on the merits of the idea, instead choosing to turn every difference of opinion into a brawl.
We’re ready for a fight, and I’m sure many would love to see George Smitherman isolated as an individual on a ballot so judgement could be passed on him in a big way. Working to defeat him as a Mayoral candidate in Toronto, after he had resigned from the legislature and cabinet would be a fitting way to democratically pass judgement on his poor, uninformed decision making.
Today’s Toronto Star carries a Canadian Press piece on George Smitherman’s latest anti-democratic episode. Why anyone would want a mayor who legislates an end to local decision making, democratic participation and actively seeks out opportunities to disenfranchise citizens is beyond me. One thing is for sure, members of Wind Concerns Ontario isn’t going to let George Smitherman forget he is in for one hell of a fight if he decides to stay in his current job, and I’m equally certain the folks with Save the Toronto Bluffs will give him one hell of a fight should he seek to be Mayor.
Since Labour Day the Toronto media has been very generous in portraying Smitherman as the hope for Torontonians who seek change from David Miller. I challenge anyone to find any substantive differences between them. Should you find any, then determine whether Miller or Smitherman is on the right side of that fight.
Until then, read the Canadian Press article run in the Toronto Star today, prompted by a Wind Concerns Ontario press release issued yesterday afternoon. I am proud to see media coverage of Smitherman returning to reality.
CP: Wind farm opponents accuse Smitherman of ducking protesters
Opponents of new wind farms in Ontario are accusing Energy Minister George Smitherman of trying to duck protesters.
A group called Wind Concerns Ontario says Smitherman’s office hasn’t told anyone the energy minister will attend Thursday’s grand opening of the Wolfe Island wind project near Kingston.
The anti-windmill activists say Smitherman is “deathly afraid” he’ll face protests at Wolfe Island after he ran into about 50 protesters at a wind farm near Kincardine in April.
The government still had not put out an announcement late Wednesday afternoon indicating that Smitherman and Environment Minister John Gerretson would be at the Wolfe Island event.
Press secretary Amy Tang says Smitherman hasn’t avoided protests in the past and took time to talk with some of the wind farm opponents in Kincardine last spring.
Tang says the media can attend the Wolfe Island event, but would have to RSVP to Canadian Hydro Developers Inc., the company running the wind farm.
Wind Concerns Ontario says the industrial wind turbines pose a real health risk to people living nearby.
People living close to turbines have reported nausea, headaches, dizziness, anxiety, sleep deprivation and tinnitus – an incessant ringing in a person’s ears – according to the group’s website.
However, Queen’s University researcher Neal Michelutti, who is studying the impact of the Wolfe Island wind farm, says there has been no substantive research so far linking those ailments to the presence of windmills.
The Ontario government has legislated a 550-metre setback for wind turbines, but the 86 machines on Wolfe Island that started operating in June are only 400 metres from people’s homes.
5 Comments »Half a Million Canadians Unemployed on Labour Day 2009
While it is fair to say most Canadians who are either enjoying the last long weekend of summer or spending it anxiously getting their children ready to return to school tomorrow probably aren’t thinking about the significance behind today; those who do, likely are thinking about the 500 000 Canadians who are unemployed. Labour Day is meant to celebrate the achievements of the labour movement and recognize the success organized labour has had causing improvements to benefit workers social and economic situations.
As an individual, I find the number of unemployed in Canada to be staggering. Five hundred thousand people is massive. If every single unemployed person lived in one city, it would be the size of Hamilton.
This is an unprecedented economic downtown, and at least in Ontario, unemployment in key sectors like manufacturing have been raising for years leading up to the full blown recession. One thing Liberals, New Democrats and the Bloc all seemed to agree on is that the Employment Insurance program in Canada was not suited to meet the needs of workers laid off in these numbers or during this kind of downturn. That’s why proposals for reform, which would see EI easier accessed, fairer for Canadians from coast to coast, and benefits more generous is in fact important.
Keep in mind, when times were good, the Federal government had huge surpluses in the EI account, and re-directed those funds for other government priorities and cut premiums for workers to reflect the predicted needs of the EI program. That worked when the economy was hitting new highs, and unemployment was at historic lows. I don’t necessarily endorse one party’s plan for reforming Employment Insurance, and I see this type of a reform as being more like a band aid on a broader challenge, but I do believe it is an important band aid and one I would like to see parliament work cooperatively on in the fall, instead of sending Canadians to another election that no one really wants.
Opposition parties also need to be very careful as Canadians have never elected four minority governments in a row, and polls show most Canadians want the stability a majority government brings. While the Bloc poses a significant challenge to any party forming a majority government, politicians and political operatives would be well advised to heed Canadian’s warnings about the desire to elect a majority and recognize forcing an election could cause a volatile political situation, where voters who aren’t married to a particular party vote strategically for the perceived winner, just to end the silly hour going on in Parliament.
For the Liberals and the Conservatives this could be really good or really bad. For the NDP and the Bloc it can only be bad. For Canadians, it’s un-necessary.
Let’s hope the election madness calms down long enough for all parties to genuinely try to do something to help unemployed people, and can come up with something more creative than temporary work at Elections Canada to do it.
2 Comments »London Free Press: Windy controversy
Now you have it. The Ministry of Environment admits that they simply don’t even pretend to care what the wind industry does in Ontario. I imagine by ‘back and forth’ with industry, the Ministry official is referencing the 20 year standard offer contracts that go forth, and the campaign contributions to the Ontario Liberal Party that come back, because from all I can tell this is the only ‘back and forth’ between this industry and this government.
Windy controversy
Ontario wind farm projects are being assessed by proponents and not independent environmental experts, figures show
By RANDY RICHMOND, THE LONDON FREE PRESS
Not a single wind farm project proposed in the past four years in Ontario has undergone an independent environmental assessment by the province, figures obtained by The Free Press show.
Despite requests from citizens’ groups for the assessments, 31 projects have been allowed to go through after a less stringent screening process undertaken by the wind farm proponents themselves.
“It demonstrates the process is a sham,” said John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, a coalition of 33 smaller groups.
“Each of these projects is a foregone conclusion.”
And Carmen Krogh, a researcher and advocate for wind farm victims, called the process “flawed.
“It is something that has to be fixed,” he said.
The government is allowing the wind farm proponents to assess their projects without proper oversight, said Krogh, a former pharmacist and director of Health Canada’s pesticides agency.
“The proponents are the ones who fill out the information about health impacts,” said Krogh. “They all have an official position (that) there are not health effects, so there is not authoritative, independent review.”
Opponents are equally concerned by new provincial regulations that are intended to streamline the approval process even more.
They predict the new rules and ongoing resistance to citizen input is going to lead to a bitter political fight that will intensify during the next provincial election.
“Through completely ignoring the legitimate claims of people, the government is ratcheting it up,” Laforet said. “You wouldn’t be getting into a war if the government was taking people seriously.”
But the Environment Ministry is standing by the process. Officials say there’s no need to look at each project separately because there have been so many.
“They are not unique,” said ministry spokesperson Kate Jordan. “We know what the environmental impacts will be.”
Companies building wind farms must conduct what the province calls an environmental screening that identifies the potential social, economic and environmental impact of the project and how to mitigate any possible problems, such as noise.
People worried about a project can ask the province to conduct its own full-scale environmental assessment on the proposal.
From 2006 to August 2009, Ontario residents have asked for full assessments on 31 wind farm projects. In all cases, the province rejected the requests. In July, for example, the province decided no assessment was needed for the Flat Creek Wind project in Chatham-Kent, according to opponents of the proposal.
There are another nine projects still being reviewed, including one near Strathroy. Opponents there plan an open house on the proposal Sept. 9.
Full environmental assessments are carried out only for “large-scale complex undertakings with potential for significant environmental effects and major public interest,” Jordan said.
Although a company proposing a wind farm carries out its own environmental screening, it’s not given a blank cheque to do what it wants, Jordan said.
The screening must include how public concerns were addressed. Often companies are required to mitigate those concerns before the province takes a look at the final proposal, she said.
“There is a lot of back and forth that goes on.”
Randy Richmond is a Free Press reporter. randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca
THE NUMBERS
Requests for environmental assessments:
2006: 4 (all denied)
2007: 7 (all denied)
2008: 12 (all denied)
Jan to Aug. 2009: 19, 9 denied, 1 withdrawn, 9 under review.
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