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.

What was interesting to see however was who didn’t vote for this odious piece of legislation. Premier McGuinty wasn’t present to vote for his anti democratic, anti environment bill. MPPs Best (Scarborough Guildwood), Berardinetti (Scarborough Southwest), or Arthurs (Pickering Scarborough East) all had a case of the ‘legislative flu’ that saw them unable to attend. I have said very clearly before that the passage of this bill would almost certainly cost Margarett Best her seat in Scarborough Guildwood and could well cost Berardinetti and Athurs their Scarborough waterfront seats as well. If they think ducking is the same as standing up for their communities, they are sadly mistaken and I’m sure the opposition parties and voters will not let them off that easy for siding with their Party Leader and Deputy Leader’s attacks on our community. 

I left the Ontario Liberal Party over the Premier and Deputy Premier’s name calling, you figure they could have at least come out publicly to correct the distorted view of Scarborough residents. 

On the topic of distortion – Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson got a bit of a surprise last week as did Mark Patterson of the Ministry of Natural Resources who happens to be the bureaucrat who in his professional opinion found nothing wrong with a Project Evaluation Report that contained well over three hundred violations of law. He still approved it. You see Patterson and his friends at the Ministry of Natural Resources lost their ‘no’ stamps after getting so used to approving whatever industry sent their way. 

Approving this illegal application that contained more than three hundred violations of law was a mistake (To Toronto Hydro Energy Services – if this claim is untrue, please have someone in your legal department email me immediately and I will correct this. Naturally we both know it is a provable fact your Project Evaluation Report did in fact contain well over three hundred violations of law, so I don’t expect to hear from you on this.)

As could be expected Scarborough Bluffs residents pushed back and schooled Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson on their complete and utter ignorance of the environment and the legitimate risks they are blindly proposing for the platform they had hoped to construct. Their lack of knowledge or use of science is astounding. They think having a diver go into the water on a single day for a few minutes and look for fish is scientifically rigorous. That is the extent of their evaluation of habitat issues. No samples taken, no consideration for the proximately to wetlands or the impact of their artificial structure to form a reef for invasive species that are known to destroy habitat. No studies of the sediment they intend to stir up. No attempt to understand anything. 

Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson both lied repeatedly to members of the community about a number of the aspects of the project. Their report misleads the Province into believing they did things we can and will prove they did not, and frankly if they don’t walk away from this project, I would be surprised if either of them is able to stay employed with Toronto Hydro Energy Services. (Guys, same thing goes, if untrue, will gladly correct on advice of your legal department)

We’ve asked the Ministry of Environment to allow for a real environmental review, one that actually looks at impacts on the environment and not a report was based on one person’s morning ‘snorkel’. 

Normally the Ministry of Environment ignores those requests. But normally Project developers have IQ’s higher than Lake Ontario’s water temperature (Lake is approximately 42 F today). Normally project developers have experience developing projects like this. Neither can be said for Toronto Hydro Energy Services. We will take this fight as far as we can, we will stop at nothing that is within our legal rights to halt this process.

Joyce Mclean and Jack Simpson – you’re on notice from Scarborough Residents that we will fight you to the end and not let you get away with your illegal application, your lies, phony science, twisted facts and abuse of the good people of Scarborough. 

I got an email last night about Toronto Hydro’s proposed near-shore wind farm. With the sender’s permission I’ve put the text below. Take a read:

John,

I am considering the purchase of a home in the Beach but I am concerned about the proposed wind farm.  It looks to me from a recent document I read that the wind farm could be as close as 1.4 KM from the shore in the Beach community.   All the reading I have done suggests that there can be noise issues at 2KM or greater.

Any advice for me with this issue?  Should I visit a wind farm to see for myself how noisy they can be?   Will sound travel faster over water?  Have you read about nosie issues from off-shore wind farms?

I informed a person who lives in the Beach about this issue not too long ago and he hadn’t even heard about it.  And this fellow is a well-educated, highly-paid professional who lives on one of the best streets in the Beach.  It seems to me that many people don’t even know about it.  Anyhow, when I told him about it he was livid.  In his words, he planned to “mobilize the troops.”

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

(Unlike Toronto Hydro, I respect folks privacy and block out names)

My Response:

• I told him Toronto Hydro has said they would be placed 2-4KM offshore, but they also told us the anemometer would be 1.8KM offshore, until they sought permission without consultation to place it 1.2KM offshore. I also made him aware their lease is considerably closer to shore than 2KM. 
• On the noise issue, I pointed out much is not known on impact of noise from wind turbines over the water, but we all know from cottages sound travels greater distances over water than land.
• I advised him that no one can say for certain if folks in the beach or Scarborough would be able to hear the impacts of an offshore farm, and Toronto Hydro has not shown any evidence that residents will not be able to.
• I did encourage him to buy the home, and not let Toronto Hydro’s irresponsibility prevent him from doing that, because thousands of residents are standing up to oppose Toronto Hydro’s environmentally irresponsible plan and we’re hopeful they can be stopped

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!

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 

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).

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.

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. 

There are always questions for which there are no answers, and repeating them enough creates “an impression of stonewalling,” he said.

“I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of support for that wind farm. But you don’t really hear about that.”

…

“In an interview, Paul Ainslie, whose Scarborough East Ward 43 includes Guildwood, said he’s “amused” by the Liberal government’s attitude.

Guildwood homeowners, he said, are held up as Not In My Back Yard opponents of clean energy to justify its legislation, but Toronto Hydro, which was “grudging” in how in gave out information, doesn’t need municipal permission for a wind farm.”

Minister defends green energy plans in meeting – Scarborough Mirror, March 13 2009

Once again Minister Smitherman has decided to run his mouth about Scarborough residents without first getting virtually any of the facts available to him. I have not been able to find a single resident who wrote Mr. Smitherman in January who has yet to receieve a response – which suggests his staff aren’t even bothering to read our concerns as he legislates our rights away.

The only gamesmanship has been perpetuated by Joyce McLean and her associates on the fringe left. Does Smitherman actually believe it is ‘honest and forthright’ to purposely select a meeting location outside of the community in question, against the advice of local representatives because they believed the location was too small, and then have to cancel the meeting when too many people arrived? Does Minister Smitherman believe it was ‘honest and forthright’ when groups funded by the same sources as the project McLean is managing, stacked Guildwood’s community meeting with busloads of paid environmentalists to shout down opposition in our community? Does he believe it was ‘honest and forthright’ when McLean and Toronto Hydro Energy Services came up with an exclusionary registration process that denied hundreds of resident’s an opportunity to participate? Was it ‘honest and forthright’ when McLean opted not to speak about the class environmental assessment required for the anemomter at all at the meetings called as part of the process and instead disclosed seven days after the meeting that that was it’s purpose? Is it honest and forthright for McLean to mislead resident’s about the success (or utter failure) of her last wind experiment? Is refusing to provide the community with information on minimum wind thresholds ‘honest and forthright’?  How about leasing the lake bed in July 2005 and waiting three years to tell the community about it, and then only doing so as part of a manditory comment period that MNR requires.How about denying me information that is considered public and will need to be made available at some point, until after the project has been approved.

The fact is Toronto Hydro Energy Services has made community participation absolutely impossible and angered so many residents there is no way this project can expect to recieve any community support whatsoever. If Smitherman wants to test this theory, I will gladly invite him door knocking with me to test the community pulse (and the waters for his Mayoral bid).

As far as gamesmenship goes, McLean has practiced more gamesmenship than anyone else in the process and she has single handedly destroyed any credibility Toronto Hydro Energy Services had in the eyes of residents. It’s too bad THES doesn’t care about their image, because a normal place would have pulled her off this project months ago and apologized for her utter disregard and lack of common sense.

If the Minister wants to see gamesmenship, he should keep ignoring and trashing Guildwood residents legitimate concern about his utter disregard for the environment and local democracy and wait to see our reaction the next time someone hands us a ballot. It won’t be pretty, I promise. Consider that of 6500 voters in Guildwood, 700 attended the last attempt at a meeting by Toronto Hydro and even using a randomized system for determining who spoke, not a single person rose in favour of the anemometer study.

Why? Because unlike Minister Smitherman, Ms. McLean, or Toronto Hydro Energy Services – Guildwood residents care about the environment and we know that nowhere in the world could anyone put a project this close to a shoreline. We know that Europe is waking up to the need to protect shorelines and has created nature conservation buffers mostly of 10k or more. We know that Environmental Assessments are important, even if Minister Smitherman doesn’t think so and we will oppose any project that doesn’t actually require one (regardless of what Ms. McLean will try and claim).

Richard Nixon, like George Smitherman cited a ‘silent majority’ when faced with an absolute crumbling of support for a drawn out battle of his. For Nixon it was Viet Nam, for Smitherman it’s Bill 150 – if passed as it is, it is certain to be the McGuinty Government’s political equivelent of a drawn out, unpopular war.

As for Paul Ainslie finding it ‘amusing’ that Minister Smitherman is attacking Guildwood residents and calling them NIMBY and our concerns ‘absurd’, I would say that he might be amused, but those of us who are actually talking about real issues aren’t. Councillor Ainslie would be well advised to take a break from his failed zoo take over and take a look at some of the more incoherent points he has made regarding the project that not only do not reflect the community position, but feed directly into the Minister’s communications assualt strategy on Guildwood. – Ainslie’s website has a number of them. Contrary to his comments about municipal involvement, the Councillor sits on the Toronto Atmospheric Fund and the City of Toronto Council – both of which are municipal bodies, each of which voted to fund this project, before it was made public to Guildwood residents. He is also well aware the City of Toronto owns Toronto Hydro and therefore it is inexcapably a municipal issue and one that he should have known about considerably longer than it’s been public to Guildwood residents.

As I said the day Premier McGuinty first attacked Scarborough residents ‘resident’s will not lay down’. He and Minister Smitherman can say whatever they’d like, the fact is steamrolling this bill through will have political concequences they don’t seem all that interested in and that’s fine, I guess. Further, Bill 150 will not make up for all the job losses that are piling up. February alone saw Ontario shed 35 000 jobs. This $700 million project Toronto Hydro proposes, according to McLean will produce just 200 ‘short term’ construction jobs. Ontario will probably lose more jobs between Bill 150′s introduction and royal assent than even this magic 50 000 jobs it is supposed to create somehow over three years. Don’t believe me? – Check back in May.

If it wasn’t bad enough they have purposely denied residents their right to participate in a consultation process on three occasions, before Minister Smitherman and the Premier McGuinty stepped in to take over trying to land the body blows on the community, they’re also now refusing to release what is very public information.

The Toronto Star said of Mr. Smitherman that “George Smitherman couldn’t find the political high road with a state-of-the-art GPS”. Well I’m not sure that Chris Tyrrell, Jack Simpson and Joyce McLean at Toronto Hydro Energy Services would even be capable of turning on the GPS to search for this mystery road none of them seems interested in traveling on.

The fact is there is not sufficient wind for the proposed site where Toronto Hydro Energy Services would like to construct an offshore wind project. They have demonstrated they have no concern about the possible environmental impacts it is sure to have on Ontario’s drinking water, lake ecology and certainly on shoreline erosion. They also don’t care what the community thinks, or what it will cost.

Joyce McLean failed miserably in trying to sell this ridiculous project. Her mixture of lies and misleading facts blew up so badly, residents came out of the woodwork to fight Toronto Hydro Energy Services off and stand up for the environment and the other things they, at Hydro, clearly don’t care about. By conscripting Minister Smitherman and Premier McGuinty to fight their battles for them after McLean failed to do so – she’s now put them in a situation where an automatic three seats in Toronto have now become competitive and there is no way Smitherman could realistically expect to be able to win a Mayor’s race after his commentary on the good people of Scarborough, to which even now – no apology has been made. So now that it has been recognized that Toronto Hydro’s “Director of Strategic Services” is more like the orchestrator of unmitigated public relations disasters – she’s itching for another fight. She chose to turn a very simple request from me into a gong show.

I asked for some public information last Monday, it’s Wednesday (eight business days later) and the back and forth continues, with the bureaucrat at the Ministry of Natural Resources who will eventually rubber stamp whatever BS McLean and Anne Mometer throw together and send their way, being cc’d on everything. I warned Hydro – starting an unnecessary fight would result in a public complaint on my part.

I’ve asked Chris Tyrrell, the President of Toronto Hydro Energy Services to step in and provide some adult supervision to Ms. McLean as she continues to put Toronto Hydro Energy Services into yet another totally indefensible position. I certainly hope he demonstrates being in possession of an ounce of integrity and common sense that he may be able to share with McLean to prevent another embarrassing round that Toronto Hydro Energy Services has no hope of winning.

How can anyone expect taking away community’s rights to opposition is a good thing when as it is, the organizations that are so hard done by are already denying information they are legally obligated to release. Pending Tyrrell’s response, or lack there of, I will disclose the emails that have gone back and forth for context.

Developing.