Posts Tagged ‘Margarett Best’
Wait a Minute – Smitherman DEFENDS Energy NIMBYism now?
So let me get this straight… Residents of Scarborough and their three Ontario Liberal lap dogs ’representatives’ (this is in quotations because I hear this is what they’re supposed to do, but fail to see any evidence of it happening) are told to sit down and shut up when they legitimately oppose environmental concerns and breaches of law committed by Toronto Hydro as part of their plan to install turbines, but Minister and MPP Bartolucci of Sudbury can get away with totally supporting nuclear power, but opposing waste being stored in his constituency? Isn’t that the essence of NIMBY? ‘Sure it’s a great idea, but not in my constituency’ – that’s NIMBY right?
He’s even allowed to cite ‘landscape’ – read aesthetics in opposing this plan and gets away with saying, he thinks its a great idea to build nuclear plants, so long as Sudbury does not have to deal with spent nuclear fuel. What a totally ridiculous proposition. Meanwhile in Scarborough there isn’t enough wind to create energy, and yet we’re still expected to live with the health and environmental impacts without proper review and tolerate a law breaking, totally ignorant proponent that doesn’t have a clue what it’s doing.
The opposition of Guildwood residents to Toronto Hydro’s breaches of law, and total disregard for health and environmental impacts saw us insulted by the Premier and his Deputy and a law passed with a clause the Premier said was designed to block communities like mine from participating in democratic decision making.
What’s more – that Nuclear power Bartolucci so willingly supports being built on the shores of Lake Ontario – hundreds of miles from his precious home, kilometres from mine, and with legitimate impacts on the Lake my community lives on, and receives its drinking water from. Could anyone be a more irresponsible in pushing public policy than this?
Liberal friends in Scarborough Guildwood, including those very close to Minister Best – who was publicly silent on our community’s behalf and failed to even attempt to publicly represent our views – tried to convince me that she couldn’t because she was in Cabinet and didn’t have the ability to speak out against the government. I said I thought she could, and offered to help her and her office develop the messaging that would allow her to stand between government and community to see our issues heard publicly, without getting her thrown out of Cabinet. They didn’t disagree, they just never took me up on it. Liberals were afraid big bad George would get her if she did.
Smitherman has come out in defense of Bartolucci’s blatant NIMBYism – even though Smitherman doesn’t believe Bartolucci has valid points.
‘Energy Minister George Smitherman said he doesn’t share Bartolucci’s reservations, but defended the comments, saying his colleague “is allowed to be a local MPP” as well as a cabinet minister.‘ Critics question Liberal’s energy plan – CTV May 26 2009
It was made quite clear to me that under this Liberal government Scarborough Guildwood is not entitled to a local MPP who also serves as a Cabinet Minister. My Liberal friends in Scarborough Guildwood can continue to get upset when I raise this point privately, and now very publicly in the face of total hypocrisy, but voters don’t care of their MPP gets a car with a driver, a bigger staff and more money – they want a voice and if the incumbent won’t provide it, elections will change who that representative is, and the perks of Cabinet will be lost anyways.
If the opposition parties get candidate selection and fundraising right, this will be the case in Scarborough Guildwood – and George Smitherman’s ‘playing to the crowd’ approach to public speaking will continue to serve up gems to seal the fate of those who cowered when it came time to vote for or against the Green Energy Act, a vote Margarett Best, Lorezno Berardinetti and Wayne Arthurs – spent hiding in the hall so they didn’t have to go on record either way.
I’ll never understand how it feels to hop into bed with folks whose ethical backbone is so weak they are OK knowingly killing family pets because it would be inconvienant to solve the crux of the problem, and so ignorant of their own equipment they assure parents children are safe – a couple days before electrucuting a dozen small children. Ladies and Gentleman this is the corporate mentality at Toronto Hydro Energy Services (THES Legal Department – again feel free to fact check and request any inaccuracies be corrected. Naturally we know these things are provable… so same deal as before? you read, you fume, and don’t reply?) vampire Personally, I couldn’t do it literally or figuratively – yet I know quite well there are folks in Dalton McGuinty’s government who are quite comfortable with this, including George Smitherman, Toronto Hydro’s prime defender and ‘knee capper’ (George, your swipes at mine didn’t take).
Toronto Hydro’s illegal application, lies and attempt at scientific review that would probably not meet the rigor of a primary school science fair is now under review of the Ontario Minister of Environment and the officials at the Ministry of Natural Resources. They have the opportunity to end it here and force Toronto Hydro to do a real review and recognize they are going to cause significant environmental damage and regardless of how dense Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson are – something will have to be done to address it.
I’ll start making bets that come 2011 – Toronto Hydro Energy Services will be no closer to putting turbines in the Lake off the Scarborough Bluffs, and the three swing ridings that are currently in envy of the people of Sudbury’s representation, will be changing hands, proving that bad public policy is also bad politics. Hey if George Smitherman can just keep talking, he’ll practically write the flyers for opposition parties.
2 Comments »Update on the Green Energy Act and Toronto Hydro's Illegal Application
The Green Energy Act passed. I don’t think anyone was surprised by that part. It passed with some amendments however. The most laughable was the inclusion of a weak clause about ‘community involvement’ being one of the lenses this bill is seen through. If we cut through the Orwellian doublespeak we’ll see that this bill still lives up to Dalton McGuinty’s promise to strip environmental protections and the democratic rights of citizens away from the planning process. He proved with the passage of this legislation that he is not a true democrat in his views on governance. His ‘father knows best’ approach will be punished at the polls, that I am certain of.
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.
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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
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