Posts Tagged ‘Anemometer’
A Process As Tainted As the Lake Bed They’d Like to Disturb
Toronto Hydro’s brazen attempt to pull one over on the Ministry of Natural Resources is a clear demonstration that not only do they not care about the residents of Scarborough Bluff communities, but they seriously don’t care about the environment or laws.
They think by moving the Anemometer east of Guildwood – residents will go away. This is a highly cynical ploy by Toronto Hydro and part of a totally bogus process.
We’re not going anywhere, we’ll get louder than ever and are growing with everyday.
These folks are so ignorant to the what they’re doing that they’ve built holes big enough to run the massive barges it would take to construct turbines though. The errors and omissions are epic and demonstration these clowns behind the project haven’t got a clue what they are doing.
Now – we have 29 days to read through over 900 pages of their project evaluation and respond. And respond we will.
It will mean however I will once again be ducking under the radar for a couple of days to get through all of this.
See you Monday!
6 Comments »
THES Illegal Application Accepted by Bought and Paid For Ontario Liberal Government
This post was updated at the request of the Toronto Hydro Corporation Legal Department in light of hundreds of privacy violation they committed in the appendices of the illegal project evaluation. The links were swapped with links to the illegal application that don’t violate the privacy of hundreds of people – April 20th 2009
I need to start by saying it was not lost on me that the individual who prepared this report has ‘BS’ as his initials. While his name may not be Bull Shit – the report and process to date certainly have been and it would be a fitting name for Blair Shoniker’s (Environmental Planner at AECOM) version of fact contained in the Illegal Project Evaluation Report.
Public ‘Consultation’ begins again… Toronto Hydro style of course. You know how that goes by now, they lie, we get furious and respond with facts, our local politicians try to look busy doing other stuff and the bought and paid for Liberal government at Queen’s Park rubber stamps whatever crosses their desk, from an industry that has chowed on more rubber chicken at political dinners than anyone should have to tolerate.
Guildwood residents, myself included, were hopeful that our Provincial ‘representative’ would rise to the occasion and stand up for our community. I went to great lengths to try to work with her and her office to make that happen and in the end, it appears she sat back and stuck to the party line – the one the wind industry bought with it’s tens of thousands of dollars in kick backs to the Ontario Liberal Party. I say kick back because when someone receives a public subsidy and then turns around and donates the legal maximum to the political party that the Minister who made the decision represents – it is for all intents and purposes a kick back and an attempt at influence peddling.
Guildwood residents will not lay down. We’re in this fight and are continuing to find new support within the community as residents wake up to the rank process THES has led. Expect hundreds of residents to be pouring over the documents made available as part of this process for the next couple of days with more to come once it has been digested.
If you’re anyone who is remotely interested in this process, and would like any assistance at all in writing the Ministry to condemn this sham process and help us force a proper environmental review – contact me. john.laforet@laforet.ca is the best way of doing that. Unlike Joyce Mclean, David O’Brien, Chris Tyrrell or Jack Simpson at Toronto Hydro – I do actually answer my emails.
I’m including links to the documents:
Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Application – Project Evaluation Report
Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Application Appendices
3 Comments »Guildwood Community Led Community Meeting a Great Success
‘Residents won’t lay down’ – this was my immediate reaction to Premier McGuinty and Minister Smitherman’s attacks on the good people of Scarborough. Yesterday hundreds of Guildwood residents came out and made it clear this was far from over.
What a remarkable display of democracy in action. Residents came together to talk about an issue important to their community, share knowledge, concerns and solutions to what has become a serious problem. Our elected officials may not listen, Toronto Hydro may continue to ignore it’s legal obligations and the Government of Ontario may be fixing to limit our right to participate in decision making – as Ontarians have been allowed to for generations, but Guildwood residents are holding strong.
The cafeteria at the local high school was turned into a meeting place where residents could drop in, go to different stations and talk to others who’d been researching specific issues for some time. What was most interesting was to see the number of residents who came out to talk to members of Save the Toronto Bluffs, and then speak with each other in the middle of the room to evaluate the information they had received and to share their concerns with others. It turned into an excellent opportunity for neighbours to see friends they may not have seen during all the snow, to talk about our community, to connect with others, but most of all – to strengthen their resolve to keep fighting this proposal.
I was thrilled to meet so many of the people I’ve been emailing back and forth with, and have the opportunity to share some of the more candid tales of this whole process, including commentary of how the actions of our opponents both created and fed a movement that would have otherwise been difficult to get off the ground.
It was a great event, one that saw everyone treated with respect, honest words spoken, and a robust conversation had. Even for a community with such vast variety of concerns what became clear is that engaging in dialogue is the only way issues like this can be understood and addressed.
And finally – on a more personal note, I was thankful to see so many members of the Guildwood community I’ve grown up knowing, meeting the individuals who’ve written me and shared their stories, concerns and kind words. Meetings like this are great for reminding those who devote their time to causes, what the stakes really are, and who it really impacts. I will take the positive energy from Sunday’s meeting and use it as my personal ‘renewable energy source’ to keep up my efforts, along with the thousands of Guildwood residents whose position I share, and together we will stop Toronto Hydro and can only hope Minister Smitherman recognizes how wrong this project was from the start.
The Ministry of Natural Resources now holds all the information they need to decline Toronto Hydro’s application. It was clear to everyone it failed to meet the legal requirements for such an application, but as we’ve seen, the truth, decency and law don’t appear to matter to these folks. – I know these values are shared by the members of the Ontario Public Service, and it is my hope they will find the courage to tell Toronto Hydro that they cannot choose not to comply with environmental laws (as they are attempting to do).
6 Comments »
