Posts Tagged ‘Class B Environmental Assessment’
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 »Unedited Audio of Toronto Hydro's January 20th Community Meeting
Three Toronto Hydro executives walk into a bar auditorium… While points of this meeting did result in the simultaneous outburst in laughter of over 700 Guildwood Villagers, unfortunately this is all too serious to be considered a joke. Residents do take this extremely seriously, but some of the statements Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson relied on were closer to punch lines than facts. Listen for yourself.
The link below will allow you to download the unedited tape of the question and answer portion of the Toronto Hydro Energy Services meeting in Guildwood on January 20th 2009.
I won’t say too much except the meeting did not comply with the City of Toronto act, nor did it comply with the requirements of a Class B Environmental Assessment. Unfortunately for Toronto Hydro – this meeting isn’t the only reason their application is bogus.
Joyce McLean, Jack Simpson and Chris Tyrrell all lied at this meeting. Each made statements they knew (based on Toronto Hydro’s own materials) was simply untrue. None of these individuals has any credibility as so much of what they said can and has been (in many cases) disproved. They should all be ashamed of themselves, and if they had any integrity, they would resign from their positions with Toronto’s public utility, before they do anymore damage to this entity. Joyce McLean should lead the way as her actions have been by far the most irresponsible of the bunch.
Feel free to take a listen, and to share with me the most ridiculous whopper or laugh line any of these folks threw out for public consumption during the meeting. I will post the best on my blog.
http://www.laforet.ca/media/hydro_meeting.mp3 (right click and select ‘save link as’ to save the .mp3)
Personally, my favourite part was when Jack Simpson twice said no public money was being used to finance the research (how this is even possible considering they are entirely publicly owned I don’t know) and then McLean later admitted to recieving public funds from outside Toronto Hydro’s profits, then got confused regarding sources and amounts and Jack Simpson (who had previously lied about this) stepped up and provided her clarification on the details of outside public funding.
As always, I welcome Toronto Hydro Energy Services to refute any claim I’ve made here. As we all know, unanswered claims become a matter of fact to the public with time. Toronto Hydro’s refusual to refute any of the claims I’ve made in past demonstrates a willingness to accept what I’ve said to be true. While I appreciate their agreement of facts, it is frankly unusual for these folks to not offer at least a misleading weasel word laden statement in their defense.
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