Posts Tagged ‘Chris Tyrrell’
Guildwood Residents Rejoice! Toronto Hydro Gives Community an Early Christmas Gift
When I found out today that Toronto Hydro Energy Services has abandoned plans to install the offshore Anemometer in 2009 – adding a further delay to this project which is now 18 months behind schedule. Scarborough Bluffs Residents should be proud of the work they’ve done through their activism to push Toronto Hydro’s timeline back so close to the winter months, making construction effectively impossible – something it took them almost two months of trying to realize.
We always said if we could push them into the winter months – we’d have more time. To the folks at Toronto Hydro – my heartfelt thanks to you for giving us more time to defeat you.
Toronto Hydro Energy Services employs some of the dimmest lights I’ve personally encountered at the ‘Director’ or ‘Vice President’ level. These foolish individuals who’ve flatly refused to do any sort of meaningful environmental assessment have failed to understand the conditions, and had them moving their construction barge all over the general area looking for a place they could install the device.
Guildwood residents are quick though and pushed back whenever it appeared not to be in the correct spot. We now have emails from Joyce McLean stating on two occasions the construction barge was at the right coordinates at which point it moved again, and she once again confirmed it was in the right spot, and then it moved again. Once again – something she says simply can’t be true.
Many of us had that ‘kick in the stomach’ feeling watching this barge try and figure out how to anchor something in the sand bar off the Bluffs, worried and wondering about the anemometer or possibility for turbines in the future. Seeing this play out, and being able to literally hear the voices, the songs on the radio, and the sound of a generator running from the barge have shown how the sound will travel over water – something that will only strengthen community resolve.
Toronto Hydro Energy Services is in for one hell of a fight. Residents will not back down until Toronto Hydro’s proposal is defeated and disgraced. Not a single turbine will be going off our shores, and those who want to keep pushing the idea have my sincere pledge that we, residents of the area will fight you and will never give up until this horrible idea is gone, and our lakes are protected from the untold environmental degradation involved in installing these things.
Toronto Hydro took a big step forward in their defeat by backing off on this proposal. Something they claimed would take a month took nearly two and ended in failure. Just like this whole proposal will soon enough.
Residents have a lot of work to do to convince our City Councillors who have been slow and ineffective, the City of Toronto and Toronto Hydro Energy Services to stop this proposal.
2 Comments »David O’Brien Retires as President and CEO of Toronto Hydro Corporation, Is the New Boss the Same as the Old Boss?
I have to say when I heard about the retirement of David O’Brien I was hopeful that Toronto Hydro might have the opportunity to bring in someone new, hopefully someone who has operated in the real world and has actually worked for a real company that is required to do things like respect shareholders, generate revenue, make responsible business decisions, not kill the pets of their customers, or electrocute their children through a mix of ignorance and negligence. That being said, someone looking at Toronto Hydro, and especially Toronto Hydro Energy Services from the real world probably would head for the hills before accepting the golden handcuffs that would bring them into the fold of this loonie bin.
David O’Brien personally ignored our calls for an end to Toronto Hydro Energy Services illegal process. His refusal to act or even respond to alligations is in my mind tantamount to his support of Toronto Hydro Energy Services illegal activity. Under his term, residents of Toronto saw two major privacy breaches in three months, both related to the internet. It saw a total disregard for safety as it relates to the maintenance of infrastructure that has the potential to have lethal consequences if not properly maintained. We watched as executives at Toronto Hydro told what can only be described as bald faced lies, as the legal counsel for Toronto Hydro made themselves aware of Toronto Hydro Energy Services illegal activity and did nothing to either deny the claims being made or to direct their client to not proceed with an illegal application.
Hopefully Anthony Haines, current President of Toronto Hydro Electric System, the company within Toronto Hydro that actually makes money and generates profit, does a reasonable job of carrying out its obligations in a safe manner will look at his poor cousins in Toronto Hydro Energy Services and see them for the finanacial parasite they are, and reign in Chris Tyrrell, Jack Simpson and Joyce McLean. It’s my hope he will tell each of these ethically challenged individuals that illegality is no longer acceptable, that they cannot lie when it suits them, cut corners as it pleases or violate laws that would prevent them if followed.
Let’s hope the new boss is nothing like the old boss, and is wise enough to realize that this proposal to build a wind factory where it is well documented their isn’t sufficient wind is a fool’s paradise that isn’t worthy of the 700 million dollars of public money that will be wasted damaging the environment, trampling democracy and wasting the hard earned money of Toronto taxpayers. Haines has the opportunity to reach out, and right the wrongs of his predecessor and the pathetic so-called sister company Toronto Hydro Energy Services which represents just three percent of total revenue for Toronto Hydro and is the source of most of it’s headaches. In the private sector a Chief Executive with deal with a problem like that swiftly considering Toronto Hydro Energy Services total revenue represents a rounding error on the balance sheet. Here’s to hoping Haines will too.
If Haines decides he should be the same as the old boss, I promise him this, we’ll be there to hold you to account, to challenge the inappropriate actions carried out by your organization and will defend our rights, our environment, and our tax dollars as long and with as much intensity as is required to come out on top. On the flip side, should Haines decide to cancel Toronto Hydro Energy Services illegal application, and end their attempts to put a wind factory in what may be the worst site selection on the lake (who builds in front of a cliff when you need wind?) residents would celebrate the move, and thank him for the wise business sense to see that a company whose annual income isn’t even enough to meet it’s own payroll should not be spending $700 million dollars of a sister companies money on a really bad idea that will not pay off in the end.
No Comments »Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources Has a ‘Gartner Lee / AECOM’ Moment and Gets Caught
Folks may remember when one of the resident asses working on the Toronto Hydro proposal for an offshore wind test platform at Gartner Lee / AECOM decided to use the name Anne Mometer to insult me on my blog, and was subsequently outed, giving me the opportunity to go after ‘her’ employer and their law breaking client – Toronto Hydro Energy Services. Actually – both Gartner Lee and Toronto Hydro Energy Services violated the law literally hundreds of times together (To Gartner Lee / AECOM and Toronto Hydro again – as this is totally provable, I would welcome any response your Counsel has in this regard – but because we all know you did violate law hundreds of times together, it isn’t actionable as it is simply a statement of provable fact.)
It seems there are still eco-bullies in high places who know so little about the internet they don’t get why their highly ignorant and insensitive comments get them in hot water. Natural Resources is probably the most inappropriate place for someone to be belittling an individuals moving and painful experience. As such, I hope the comment results in an individual finding themselves removed from the public service.
First read this post about Barbara Ashbee having to abandon her home due to the health effects of a poorly planned wind project, and then view the totally insensitive comment from some Ottawa based hack who could choose to help residents, but instead decides to mock them.
Below is the comment the cowardly individual from Natural Resources left.
Please let me know when the property comes up for sale. Since everyone claims that property values will decrese, I will expect a bargain basement price!
Not only does this person not know how to spell but I checked the IP address of the originator of this comment and lo and behold:
OrgName: Natural Resources Canada
OrgID: NRC-41
Address: 580 Booth Street
City: Ottawa
StateProv: ON
PostalCode: K1A-0E4
Country: CA
Author : (IP: 132.156.196.29 , 132.156.196.29) E-mail :
URL :
Whois :
http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=132.156.196.29
Here is the Wind Concerns Ontario post on this incident.
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