Posts Tagged ‘OSEA’
Leaked Document Confirms Campaign of Deception By Pro-Wind Special Interests
Sussex Strategy – a Liberal connected PR firm – was quite candid in a leaked document calling for moneyed interests to try to change the channel on the current wind energy debate in Ontario. These guys – a professional public relations firm advised their unnamed clients – basically an orgy of government subsidized energy interests – to ‘confuse’ the issue. That means lie to voters. They made it clear the existing work being done by groups opposed to the government’s plan are creating a real problem on the ground and one Dalton McGuinty can’t win. In fact according to Sussex Strategy – McGuinty has done such a bad job on the energy file he could lose as badly as Ernie Eves did in 2003.
It calls for $300,000 to be spent immediately as seed money trying to fight back for the Liberals, by the same moneyed interests that they’ve rewarded since taking power. It calls for lying to Ontarians about wind energy on a number of fronts, dividing communities and and colluding with government, industry and NGOs.
Perhaps the worst part is the $300,000 is just seed money, and in bold they talk about taking anonymous donations to fund their desperate scramble for more of your hard earned money and defence of the government that shovels it out the door by the billion to these guys.
Read for yourself as the wind industry admits the jobs that were promised never showed up, that bills have spiked and that the environment and health aren’t really the point of this whole exercise. Seriously folks. – This is the wind industry talking.
The reality is, the wind industry is dying world wide. Subsidies are drying up, public opinion is shifting and jurisdictions are now in a race to see who is the last to be conned by this corrupt industry.
Wind Concerns Ontario will continue to fight like hell and stand up to the moneyed interests of the desperate pro-wind forces. We’ll continue to stand with Ontarians facing these projects, fight off the foreign corporations destroying rural Ontario and defeat the politicans that let it happen.
Here is a link to the appalling document (Renewable Energy Matters – Campaign Outline) that outlines how this slimy industry’s ‘hail mary’ pass to your wallet is supposed to work.
As I said to Robert Hornung, President of CanWEA in September 2009 – you can spend all the money you want, we will defeat you, and the political backers you’ve bought because we’ve got the bodies on the ground and money can’t change that.
Over the last month we’ve shown that with rally after rally and it’s going to continue until we’ve reclaimed our rights, can protect our communities and defeat the bought and paid for politicians that let this happen.
If you’re disgusted by this latest ethical fumbling by this disgusting industry – please get in touch with me.
3 Comments »Of Course Wind Energy Lobbyist Rob Silver Supports Rossi’s Proposed Sale of Toronto Hydro
In his latest piece “Why selling Toronto Hydro is a good idea” Rob Silver – a former McGuinty Senior Advisor turned energy lobbyist left out some details which are pertinent to why a guy in his particular trade would be so keen to see Toronto Hydro sold off.
Toronto Hydro owns an incompetent sister company called Toronto Hydro Energy Services that is proposing to build turbines in a part of Ontario where we all know they won’t work. Because the City of Toronto is the 100% shareholder in theory residents should be able to win this fight and keep this money making asset (this is why the City shouldn’t sell Toronto Hydro) from blowing $700 million bucks it doesn’t have on a project that doesn’t work.
Silvers however has made a good amount of money pushing a product that doesn’t work on former colleagues of his. Robert Silver (links are to his filings in the lobbyist registry) has represented the Canadian Wind Energy Association an industry lobby for the corporate welfare cases that make up the wind industry in Canada and fought so hard to have citizens rights taken away.
Joyce McLean – the Director of Strategic Services at Toronto Hydro Energy Services is the past chair of CanWEA. In fact the bottom of every email she sends shares that fact.
Toronto Hydro is a member of CanWEA (Robert Silver’s former client).
Silver has also represented the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association - an organization that founded the Green Energy Act Alliance and literally developed the framework to deprive citizens of their rights, strip municipalities of their planning controls and trample democracy to keep their financially not viable clients in business.
In fact his former boss Dalton McGuinty cited Scarborough Bluffs resident’s opposition to Toronto Hydro’s illegal application to install a wind testing device as the reason for introducing the bill Rob Silver’s clients (OSEA) wrote to take my rights and the rights of my neighbours away.
CanWEA is a member of OSEA as is the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, and the City of Toronto. The Toronto Atmospheric Fund is funding part of Toronto Hydro’s research and the City of Toronto is the 100% owner of Toronto Hydro.
Rob Silver has also represented Trillium Power – a wind farm developer with a pipe dream of putting a ridiculous amount of turbines in the east end of Lake Ontario. Trillium Power had previously been set back by the Ministry of Natural Resources ‘we-don’t-know-what-we’re-doing’ moratorium on offshore wind development in the Great Lakes. The end of that moratorium opened the door for Toronto Hydro to continue planning their project which has been under development since 2003 in some way or another.
Currently Silver is listed as the active lobbyist for Enbridge Inc. – which owns a wind farm in Ontario that is believed to be harming the health of local residents. In fact at a Liberal BBQ Silver’s former boss was hosting, that was being catered by Silver’s client Enbridge – I was threatened with arrest for organizing a protect to voice opposition to Silver’s other client (OSEA’s) Green Energy Act and it’s impact on our ability to oppose Toronto Hydro’s project that was being by the former Chair of another one of Silver’s former clients (CanWEA).
He also lobbies for the Renewable Energy Task Team which is co-chaired by Mike Crawley – President of Aim Power Gen, and the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario). Silver also lobbies for Vestas - the Danish wind turbine manufacturer in addition to lobbying for other wind energy types which can be found here.
Silver’s employment and client list has him firmly onside with the folks who are breaking down the process, denying citizens their right to participate and using pressure and influence to prevent citizen opposition from derailing projects.
In this light Toronto Hydro’s proposal is the most vulnerable as it is still in theory subject to the democratic will of folks who are at least marginally accountable to their constituents.
If I was Robert Silver I would support selling Toronto Hydro too. But as the President of Wind Concerns Ontario, and a Ward 43 resident there is no way I could support any plan to sell Toronto Hydro so long as it has a dual mandate because such a sale would harm my community and this is something folks like Rob Silver must know.
That being said, based on Rocco Rossi’s performance today I wouldn’t expect Rossi knows what Toronto Hydro is up to. His issue knowledge appeared weak when he suggested amalgamation happened in 2000 (it was 1997) or that Councillors voted themselves a pay increase this year (they decided not to vote to cancel an increase they’d passed in 2006).
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