Posts Tagged ‘Anemometer’
Update on Guildwood Community Meeting and Scarborough Mirror Coverage
Below is the text of an article that ran in the Scarborough Mirror’s Wednesday March 25th 2009 edition. I hope many Guildwood residents will bring their concerns about Toronto Hydro’s irresponsible proposal to the community meeting so that we can attempt to provide them with much needed information and honest answers to their questions.
Members of Save the Toronto Bluffs are stepping up to do what Toronto Hydro was legally obligated to and failed to do as part of the Class B Environmental Assessment. We will be providing honest and accurate information to members of a community legally defined as ‘affected public’ under Environmental Assessment legislation. The fact that Joyce McLean – a former NDP partisan and political staffer at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, in addition to being the former Greenpeace Great Lakes Campaigner, either couldn’t or chose not to find her way through the legal requirements of an environmental assessment process is alarming to say the least. Especially considering she had the help of Anne Mometer at AECOM to help her out.
The irresponsibility of Toronto Hydro’s actions has caused great concern in the community and left residents without answers to very legitimate questions that should have been answer, had Toronto Hydro Energy Services properly completed the legal requirements of the Class B Environmental Assessment, which they failed to.
Once again, I’d like to invite all Guildwood residents to come out to our drop in meeting, share your concerns and ask any questions you may have about what is going on. I know everyone involved in this meeting is hopeful that we’ll be able to educate each other about the valid concerns and process issues.
Below is the text from the article:
Wind power information meeting slated
Save the Toronto Bluffs group to host event at Scarborough high school
By DANIELLE MILLEY
Fed up after two information meetings where they were able to “find out nothing,” concerned Guildwood residents are holding their own information meeting about wind power.Jacques Lupien is one of the organizers of the meeting, which takes place Sunday, March 29 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute on Guildwood Parkway.
He said the two information meetings held by Toronto Hydro regarding the installation of a wind testing device, called an anemometer, off the coast of the Scarborough Bluffs at Guildwood have not answered residents’ questions or addressed their concerns.
“They had a meeting at which we’d been able to find out nothing,” Lupien said.
After the Jan. 20 meeting, the Save the Toronto Bluffs group began planning for its own meeting.
Toronto Hydro attempted to hold its first information meeting Oct. 27, but it underestimated the community interest and had to reschedule as the room wouldn’t accommodate all those in attendance. The second meeting took place Nov. 24 with more than 1,000 people attending, including a lot of supporters of the project from other areas of the city.
Local residents complained the meeting was hijacked so a third meeting was held for local residents in January.
But residents still weren’t satisfied as questions around the economic impact and specifics of a wind farm remained unanswered.
So Lupien and others, including John Laforet, began planning their own community meeting.
“A lot of Guildwood residents are frustrated at the lack of information Toronto Hydro is providing,” Laforet said. “We’re in a position to share legitimate information with those who have questions.
“It’s members of the community taking a leadership role to share information with other members of the community.”
He said they’ve gathered information from government and industry sources around the world, such as the European Wind Energy Association and Greenpeace, about health and environmental impacts, for example.
At its meetings, Toronto Hydro officials pointed out they couldn’t answer some questions as they are still at the investigation stage to see if this is a viable site and it would do further environmental and economic studies depending on the results of the anemometer. If Toronto Hydro’s application to the Ministry of Natural Resources to conduct wind testing is approved, the anemometer would be installed this summer at a cost of $1 million. The research phase would take two years.
If a wind farm is erected there would be up to 60 turbines installed two to four kilometres offshore from Ajax to the Leslie Street Spit. This has many Guildwood residents concerned.
“It’s a huge threat to our lives. Those of us who live near Lake Ontario will be affected by this,” Lupien said.
“It’s a huge threat to health and environment.”
Lupien said members of the group, including doctors and engineers, have been doing extensive research about wind farms in other areas in order to provide those who attend Sunday’s meeting with information.
Lupien said the format will be different than the Toronto Hydro meetings as it will take place in the cafeteria with different stations set up where people can find information on specific topics such as the Green Energy Act or the anemometer.
While much of the information has been gleaned from the Internet, which Lupien admits isn’t always the most reliable source, much of the research has come from independent researchers and studies.
“We’ve gone deep into this,” he said.
Laforet said if there is something they don’t know, they’ll say so.
“If someone stumps us we’ll take their questions and go back and research the answer,” he said.
Lupien said this is also an opportunity for the Save the Toronto Bluffs group, which has 1,000 member, to recruit more concerned individuals. “
The link to the Scarborough Mirror Article ‘Wind Power Information Meeting Slated‘ can be found here.
1 Comment »Update on the Green Energy Act, Toronto Hydro's Antics and the Great Work Happening on the Ground in Guildwood
Citizen’s Voices Will Be Heard But Will Smitherman Listen
It worked! There will be public committee hearings on the Green Energy Act. Residents from across our province sent emails to the opposition House Leaders telling them to force the Standing Committee on General Government to go out into the Province and listen to the real voices of citizens, and not just the paid voices of the wind lobby.
Setting the committee agenda is about the only place in the legislative process where the opposition has a majority. Folks from across Ontario called on the opposition to refuse to make deals with the government that would shut down our voices. Once again, both the NDP and PC caucuses stood up for residents of our province in the face of the ‘bought and paid for’ advice, the wind industry has provided the Liberal government through massive amounts of donations and their paid lobbyists.
As residents we now must take advantage of this opportunity, and head out to the hearings, send in submissions and tell the government ‘residents’ won’t lay down’. It’s clear Smitherman and his staff prefer listening to donors and lobbyists over the people of Ontario, and they will be out in full force trying to keep straight faces as they praise a bill they all but wrote. We need to join them and shame their lack of concern for the environment or democracy. Just like the oil industry, these folks are out to make a buck – regardless of the damage they do.
Toronto Hydro’s Latest Trick
Toronto Hydro Energy Services is without a doubt the most disgusting example of sleazy decision making I’ve ever witnessed. Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson have run such a totally dishonest process both they and Chris Tyrrell should be fired. McLean and Simpson have abused the public trust through absolutely unethical tactics, allowing the ‘affected public’ to be abused by their allies who receive funding from the same folks who fund their research. Chris Tyrrell has demonstrated he doesn’t have the guts to stand up to the bizarre, twisted and irresponsible actions of these employees of his – so he too must go.
For her latest stunt, Joyce McLean has decided to submit an application, she must know does not meet the requirements for the Class B Environmental Assessment, to the Ministry of Natural Resources in the hopes of receiving the permit to go ahead with the Anemometer before the Green Energy Act is through committee. Anywhere else submitting a factually inaccurate paperwork would be legally frowned – but at Toronto Hydro it’s just another day’s work.
We will prove they have not completed the steps in the Class B environmental assessment and we expect the Ministry of Natural Resources to stand up to Toronto Hydro and tell them they need to follow the law like everyone else and also run a fair, open, legal process. Guildwood is ready for a fight and is not going away. Should MNR accept the application, I promise to make the bureaucrat, who we’ve begun sending evidence to via registered mail, famous. You will know his name, where he works, and what we showed him prior to the decision being made.
Guildwood Takes Action
I had an amazing day delivering flyers to Guildwood residents, informing them about our community meeting. With a lack of political representation, Cabinet Minister’s attacking our community and Toronto Hydro lying their way through the process – we are standing up. I am thrilled to be working with dozens of volunteers who have been speaking to their neighbours about what is at stake here and educating each other.
Many are looking forward to a meeting where they can come with questions, collect information and answers and do so without a restrictive process, abusive paid eco-bullies like the ones the Toronto Environmental Alliance bussed to our last meeting.
Although it is horrible to see a community railroaded and treated this way, Guildwood residents are working together to demonstrate the real strength behind democratic ideals that is alive and well in our community. It is heartening to see so many residents out of necessity getting involved in the political process, to stand up for their rights where those who have been elected to do so have failed to.
6 Comments »Guildwood Residents Fight Back – Plan Their Own Community Meeting to Share Information Hydro Refuses To
Guildwood residents are sick and tired of the treatment they have been receiving from Queen’s Park and the folks at Toronto Hydro Energy Services. The amount of bogus statements coming out of each organization warrants residents taking matters into their own hands and organizing an informative, open, meeting where folks with questions can come to find answers. Members of the community who have spent months researching this to help make an informed decision, can now share their concerns with folks who will be more apt to listen.
Not a single politician will cross a stage, no paid activists will be able to shout residents down and Joyce McLean and her friends at Hydro will not be given the opportunity to lie to residents or deny them the very basic information they have been seeking out.
The lesson here is, if you try to stifle debate and deny your opponents an equal footing – they will get louder, stronger and work outside the system for the change they seek. Bill 150 denies us our democratic rights, but the Constitution of this great country protects freedom of assembly and expression. Not even Dalton McGuinty and his paternalistic approach to complex government policy or George Smitherman’s bully tactics can take that away. The government has decided to listen to the wind companies that donate tens of thousands annually to the Ontario Liberal Party, their lobbyists and interest groups, and opted to deny us our right to participate. We’ve taken note, and if the Green Energy Act passes as is, I promise that folks like us will most certainly deny some current and prospective Liberal MPPs the privilege of participating in debate at Queen’s Park. Unlike moneyed interests, it is the citizens this bill steamrolls that have that enjoy Suffrage, and we intend to use it if necessary.
I’d like to invite all Scarborough Bluffs residents the opportunity to join us at our informal session on March 29th 2009. The details are below.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
Community Round Table on Wind Turbines
Sunday, March 29 from 1-3 p.m.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute
145 Guildwood Parkway
A group of volunteers will provide information collected from doctors, engineers and other experts to give people a better understanding about wind energy and the issues surrounding the controversial proposal to erect an industrial wind generation development near the Scarborough Bluffs.
The public is invited to learn more and ask questions on topics relating to wind turbines. Information will be available about:
- Health Issues
- The Economics & Engineering Behind Wind Energy
- Ontario’s Proposed Green Energy Act
- The Local Wind Study (Anemometer) Proposal and Existing Wind Information
- How Turbines Affect Wildlife and Ecology
- Wind Turbine Experiences – Living Near a Wind Farm
- Alternative Renewable Energy Sources
This is an informal, drop-in event organized by concerned citizens and the Save the Toronto Bluffs Association.
More details at www.savethetorontobluffs.com
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