Posts Tagged ‘Scarborough Bluffs Anemometer’
Open Letter to Ward 43 Councillor Paul Ainslie Re: Toronto Hydro’s Anemometer and His Inaction
Councillor Ainslie,
On November 13th 2009 you wrote a mass email to residents of Ward 43 in which you stated:
“Unfortunately the Province did approve the testing process which will be done via an anemometer for a two year duration. I will be doing everything I can as your City of Toronto Councillor to ensure we receive regular updates on the data being collected by Toronto Hydro. This project is a huge waste of the hard earned money we provide to Toronto Hydro through our tax dollars!”
Where have you been for the last fifteen months while residents have been working tirelessly to oppose this project?
Guildwood has had virtually no representation from you on this issue at City Hall or, for that matter, even in the press. You’ve failed to engage the community or take any meaningful action. What’s more, on a number of occasions you’ve hurt the cause of residents who oppose the turbines.
In 2006, while you were on Council, Toronto City Council approved funding ($100 000) to test offshore wind speeds in order to develop a wind farm. As a member of Council and a Budget Committee member you should have both known about this, and alerted residents to the possibility of a project in the lake. That same year the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, which you were a member of, also approved funding for this research ($150 000). All told this issue was put before two boards and twice before Council, giving you four opportunities to know what was happening and at the very least tell people about it two years in advance.
Instead, you chose inaction and in August 2008 residents found out about the proposal through an advertisement in a newspaper. At that point, a Guildwood resident contacted you seeking your help in order to organize a meeting about this. You chose to ignore that request for nearly two months, and a month after the comment period had closed. Even then, and until now, you have failed to hold a single public meeting on this issue to listen to residents.
With no consultation from residents fighting the proposed turbines, you drafted a motion that not only failed to win the support of Scarborough Councillors, but also made residents appear ‘NIMBY’ because you cited ‘visual impacts’ and ‘beauty’ as the reasons for reconsidering the project. Anyone involved in politics knows that you don’t introduce a motion of this importance until you’re certain you have the votes to pass it, because failing to pass it demonstrates support for Toronto Hydro among a voting majority of Scarborough Councillors.
In November 2008 you asked Toronto Hydro publicly to commit to building no more than sixty turbines off the Scarborough Bluffs. That position is not supported by anyone I’ve spoken to in Guildwood, and what’s worse, even when you were asking them to commit to build 100% of what they wanted and no more, they still refused. It takes a special kind of negotiator to fail to get someone to agree to take 100% of what they want.
By January 2009 you decided not to speak at the community meeting and instead sat silent. Similarly, you were silent when Guildwood residents came under fire from the Premier and Deputy Premier who were vowing to take our rights away, name calling and essentially using the arguments from you used in your motion to label us ‘NIMBY’.
While members of Save the Toronto Bluffs and I were publicly defending the community, you were introducing a motion with Councillor Stintz to help have the City of Toronto help implement the Green Energy Act – a bill that was stripping Toronto of planning control over renewable energy, and residents of their right to participate in decision making.
You have not participated in any of the elevation requests to try to ensure no environmental damage will be done by the anemometer installation. You have failed to use your position on the Toronto Region Conservation Authority to try to protect the lake from this project, or your role on the Atmospheric Fund, the Budget Committee or City Council to do anything to stop this.
Based on your media exposure since January 2009, your failed attempt to take over the Toronto Zoo Board, and subsequent battling over Zoo Board matters, it appears that the Zoo is more important to you than Ward 43 residents.
Your comments that opposition to Toronto Hydro’s project represents a minority opinion in the community, or that George Smitherman calling residents ‘absurd’, and saying residents have worked themselves into an ‘artificial lather’ were both funny and amusing to you, are not the least bit helpful to the cause of residents opposing this project.
You consistently fail to recognize that Toronto Hydro is owned by the City of Toronto and at any time the City could prevent this project from going forward. Yes the province did approve it, but you have had at least a dozen options to kill the project at the City level and time and time again failed to even try. Even if you don’t like it – this is a live municipal issue.
I believe that this is the single largest issue Guildwood residents have ever faced. Being represented by a Councillor who doesn’t live in the Ward or have an interest in local issues is proving to be extremely detrimental to the community.
It is for this reason that any sentence you start with ‘I will be doing everything I can as your City of Toronto Councillor’ must be met with a grain of salt by residents who have seen how unable you’ve proven to be to at handling tasks as simple as writing a letter of support or planning a community meeting.
Waiting until it’s too late to try and look like you’re doing something is very disingenuous and, as someone who has had to get involved to the degree that I have to try to make up for your lack of support or representation for Guildwood residents, I feel the need to make sure that others are aware that your record and your words don’t jive.
I would be pleased to speak to you about real action a City Councillor could take if they were serious about stopping this project, but I have to say, your record would suggest you aren’t.
Sincerely,
John Laforet
Comments OffO Lady Toronto, though green ye be, Scarborough is greener far to see
This post is dedicated to Joyce Mclean and Jack Simpson of Toronto Hydro. Their unique mix of ignorance, incompetance and dishonesty has inspired me to write over 60 000 words about their illegal application, gutter level eithics and has seen a community unite in common purpose to chase them out.
The reference in the title is, of course, the famous response that saw Snow White chased into the forest by a Queen as shallow about appearing ‘fair’ as Toronto Hydro and the city is about appearing ‘green’.
Just as the Queen in Snow White was not as ‘fair’ as her intended victim - the eco bullies behind the plan to distrupt, damage and distroy some of the most lasting and beautiful nature that can be found in Toronto – are not nearly as green as those who stand and fight on the side of environmental conservation.
Scarborough as fought to preserve more green space and parkland than any other former municipality in both real and per capita terms.
Scarborough diverts more garbage from landfill per capita than any other former municipality. In fact a former Scarborough landfill saw hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of volunteer hours put to work remediating the site and capturing the landfill gases which are now used to generate 26,600,000 kWh or enough power for 2300 homes annually. This happened long before green was the ‘in’ thing and back in the days long before Joyce McLean sold out and when she was an NDP staffer at Queen’s Park.
Now even while eco bullies were slamming residents who opposed Toronto Hydro’s plans to hurt the environment while trying to build a meritless $700 million project that meets literally no international standards for proper development, and fails to even meet Ontario’s barebones environmental protection – Toronto Hydro came up with the ‘Count me in’ program:
‘Created by Toronto Hydro, the Count Me In Toronto challenge offers Torontonians an innovative and unique way to encourage energy conservation in the City of Toronto. The program will see Toronto’s wards competing against one another in a friendly challenge to determine which ward is the greenest!’ - Count Me In Toronto
Which former municipalities house the top five wards?
1) Scarborough
2) Scarborough
3) Scarborough
4) North York
5) Etobicoke
The best part – George Smitherman’s Toronto Centre ranks 43rd and 44th of 44. Clearly his constituents haven’t gotten the memo he attacks Scarborough for apparently not getting.
As I’ve said before – Scarborough is by far the greenest former municipality by any measure. Unlike the eco bullies and moneyed interests who stand to make serious dough through their environmental distruction in Scarborough – we do care about the environment, we do our part and we will continue to do so by opposing the illegal application Toronto Hydro Energy Services has put forward.
My advice for those who seek to tear down my friends and I who oppose this project – walk the walk. Look to your own ways first. Change your light bulbs, turn down the AC, walk, take the TTC, recycle, compost, plant a tree – and stand up and fight for the environment. I know the good people of Scarborough will continue too, and just as we’ve shown time and time again that we are more in tune and in touch with environmental issues – we will once again prove by defeating this bizarre and illegal experiment of Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson’s, that we do have a deeper attachment and a stronger concern about the environment than the double speaking, paid lobbyists who fund those who attack us, and the politicians who’ve sold us down the creek.
While organizations, professionals and politicians may sell their principles, ethics and values for a pay cheque – residents of Scarborough see a higher purpose and will continue to reach for it over the cynicism that sees others peddle faulty logic to defend illegal and otherwise inappropriate applications for projects without merit.
Finally – I would like to thank Toronto Hydro for recognizing how truly green Scarborough is, and I would like to encourage them to do their part by dismantling Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson’s illegal application before they do any real damage to Scarborough’s environment in their attempt to chase a pay cheque.
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