Is George Smitherman Familiar With the Environment?

by John Laforet
posted on February 20th, 2009 at 08:01:40 am

While both Premier McGuinty and Minister Smitherman have softened their ‘absurd’ rhetoric since unleashing a very public backlash on themselves across the Province, Minister Smitherman still doesn’t seem to get it. They’ve backed down from flinging insults at Scarborough residents, but still don’t seem prepared to recognize the environmental concerns Scarborough’s residents have.

Smitherman’s latest comments represent the fundamental lack of understanding the Premier and he seem to have regarding Scarborough’s concerns. It’s not about our homes, it’s about preserving the environment from untold degradation. Perhaps if either of them or their staff cared to read or reply to a single letter Guildwood residents sent them before dismissing us as ‘NIMBY’ they would know this.

Smitherman again took aim at opponents of a proposed Toronto Hydro project to put a string of wind turbines in Lake Ontario two to four kilometres off the Scarborough Bluffs, saying they are far enough away from homes not to be “impactful.”

“We have done a lot of work looking at the evidence … we’re always reviewing the literature,” Smitherman added, suggesting polluted air from coal-fired electricity plants poses health dangers that outweigh concerns about wind turbines. Toronto Star, February 20th 2009

It is important that the Minister is now prepared to recognize there is a human health impact worth considering, but why can’t he recognize there is an environmental impact too?

This isn’t a balancing act. The environment should never be a balancing act. I get for political reasons comparing wind to coal makes for a decent talking point, but it isn’t a coal power plant that currently has the potential to release harmful substances into Toronto’s drinking water, cause untold damage to the shoreline or to bird, bat and fish populations. It is a wind turbine project that will not require a single ‘iota’ of provincial environmental review whatsoever. Nothing. Once they have the anemometer application from Natural Resources as far as the Government is concerned it’s officially ‘go time’. (You could already suggest the Government has decided it is ‘go’ time, considering Toronto Hydro Energy Services has stalled their application and the Premier and his Deputy have already come out swinging in favour of the application they have yet to received.)

Can Smitherman seriously ignore the fact that the proposal calls for the installation of 18 000 tonnes of massive structures in the lake, stirring up all kinds of unstudied lake bed sediment upstream from where 45% of Toronto’s water is sucked out of the lake? All of this disturbed debris, like the sand that created the Beach and the Toronto Islands will naturally drift towards the waterworks, where it has the potential to get sucked into the City’s fresh water supply. There will be no environmental review first so we won’t even know what we’re sending down current. Although should it be a problem, the good people at Toronto Water will tell us about it when the release their annual report monitoring the dozens of contaminants in our water they monitor.

As for his coal reference, at least to me it appears the Minister is giving folks the choice between getting their toxic Mercury fix between the air we breathe and the water Toronto drinks. Lake Ontario’s fish are inedible due to high mercury levels, and like other heavy metals that don’t dissolve in water they concentrate in lake bed sediment on the bottom with other harmful materials like PCBs. Construction will undoubtedly displace massive amounts of lake bed sediment.

Smitherman appears ready to ignore the fact that the Scarborough Bluffs is the most sensitive portion of shoreline anywhere on Lake Ontario and this project if ‘forced’ (the Premier’s word) on the community would be the world’s closest project of it’s size. Most European countries say one needs a minimum distance from shore of 5KM for nature conservation reasons. Germany thinks 20KM is necessary. Greenpeace Europe agrees that offshore plants need to respect this minimum distance, European wind energy associations do too. They also acknowledge the importance of full environmental assessments. So why can’t Minister Smitherman and Joyce McLean (the past President of Canada’s Wind Energy Association) take the advice of Denmark, Germany, Greenpeace Europe (McLean is also the former Greenpeace Canada Chairperson, and a former Great Lakes Campaigner for Greenpeace), and the wind industry. Do they seriously believe that they know something that the industry, governments and environmental lobby in Europe don’t?

Joyce McLean has no credibility left on this after the series of misleading statements, dirty tricks, and a demonstrated inability to appreciate any of the environmental, viability or economic concerns residents have put forth. (Once again, I am fully prepared to back up this claim if challenged.) Does the Minister really want to cast his lot in with her and hope for a different outcome?

In it’s current form this bill is not a “green” anything. It’s a fraud of a bill. It is bill cloaked in a label, written by industry insiders with a vested financial interest, introduced by a guy whose chosen to attack folks who object to the fact that not a single Provincial environmental review of any sort is required to construct 60 objects as tall as the Royal York with each weighing the equivalent of 6 subway cars each and anchored up to 90 metres deep on an unstudied sand bar. It is madness that the Province believes no environmental study whatsoever is required.

If he is serious about passing a true Green Energy Act he would recognize that set backs are necessary for environmental protection as well. He would recognize that there is a legitimate need to do a thorough environmental assessment before approving any project that has the potential to release heavy metals and PCBs into Toronto’s drinking water or have any negative environmental impact. He needs to recognize that the Scarborough Bluffs are unstable by their nature, and the construction and heavy pounding that is required to anchor a wind turbine 90 metres into a sandbar could cause erosion and further destabilize the cliffs. He needs to recognize that provincial legislation exempts wind projects from any environmental review. The provincial government just doesn’t care what kind of impact these things have.

I’m not an expert. But based on the current legislation, this blog and my attempt to use other studies and data to educate my audience, is the closest thing to an environmental study that will come out of this proposed project if Minister Smitherman doesn’t find the guts to tell the wind industry that they too need to follow the rules and actually care about the environmental impact their projects have.

The Premier and the Minister need to wake up before they risk damaging the amazing shoreline that is the Scarborough Bluffs because they were either too stubborn to admit they are wrong or not strong enough to stand up and show the leadership needed to protect the cliffs from a moneyed interest that doesn’t appear to care. They need to ask themselves before Monday when they introduce the bill why they wouldn’t want to adopt well recognized international standards for shoreline nature conservation and why the Scarborough Bluffs, which are far more delicate than other shorelines in the world, needs to have literally the closest project of it’s size anywhere in the world? And if so, why does it need to be the closest project of it’s kind in the world and the only one without any environmental review?

Finally – if anyone in a position of responsibility wants to contact me in either the Premier’s office or the Minister’s Office to discuss internationally recognized shoreline set backs for all offshore wind projects, or internationally recognized full environmental reviews, I would be more than happy to share this and can be reached at john.laforet@laforet.ca anytime today or over the weekend.

Legislature Back In Session – Premier Absent and Plastic Surgery Issue Number One

by John Laforet
posted on February 18th, 2009 at 08:07:07 am

Unbelievable. Yesterday, Ontario’s Legislature got back to work, after the Christmas break. For those of you who have been reading my posts regularly, you will have taken note of my strong opposition to Premier McGuinty and Minister Smitherman’s Harris-esque name calling and fabrication of their opponents arguments and intentions. Both McGuinty and Smitherman have promised to ‘force’ legislation through the House that will see communities and citizens lose their right to be part of the planning process for renewable energy in their communities. They said they’d introduce it this week.

Yesterday morning I was on AM 920 – a local radio station that serves Bruce, Grey Huron, Perth and Wellington counties speaking about the Green Energy Act and wind power in Ontario. I have to say there was not a single call during the 45 minute segment from anyone in favour of McGuinty’s legislation or the concept of forcing power projects on communities. Midwestern Ontario has seen more than it’s fair share of wind energy projects go through, some with great opposition locally. There are Liberal MPP’s who hold seats in these areas, who should feel uncomfortable with the proposed Green Energy Act as their constituents believe  in their democratic rights and that local planning decisions are best left to local communities.

The ill-advised speech McGuinty gave in London over a week ago has dominated provincial news and kept the Province’s handling of the economy off the front burner for a while. Perhaps that is in large part the purpose of the fight McGuinty and Smitherman decided to pick. They’ve attacked a fundamental democratic principle – the right of dissent. We need to have a society where virtually anyone is free to question government and challenge corporations. That is how we ensure transparency between the two.

About two days after his attack on Ontarian’s democratic rights, Premier McGuinty instructed the Press Gallery that from now on he expects them to keep a distance of five feet from him. Political Scientists are musing this has to do with optics. It is thought that if the press are five feet back the cameras will not be catching him looking cornered by reporters asking economic questions that there just aren’t answers to (this part isn’t his fault).

Yesterday the legislature resumed and MPPs returned from the Christmas holidays for their first non emergency day of sitting since mid December. What was on the order paper? Bill 141 – an act respecting regulations for private cosmetic surgery clinics. The budget is going to be postponed until the second half (read end) of March, from it’s previously scheduled March 7th date and the Premier was no where to be found for Question Period.

He had conveniently scheduled a media event with the Prime Minister in Etobicoke Lakeshore to announce a joint investment in the Go Transit system. I’m all for Go Transit (you could even say I’m YIMBY on this topic) – in fact Guildwood has an excellent Go Transit/VIA station that I often make use of. But I also believe there is more at work here.

Consider this – a normally reasonable Premier, attacks Scarborough, while giving a speech in London and dismisses it’s legitimate concerns and promises to pass legislation that will ‘force’ communities to take renewable energy projects by stripping local municipalities of planning powers and denying residents a voice at the table. Then he asks reporters to observe an out-of-the-blue request for space that appears to have only become a problem after 12 years being scrummed as Opposition Leader and as Premier, then delays his budget by two weeks and skips the first Question Period since the legislature has returned from holidays.

I suspect all of this has more to do with the nearly 75 000 high paying jobs Ontario lost in the last month and considerably less to do with Renewable Energy, breathing space, Go Transit or legitimate budget delays. What the government needs to recognize though is – they can score a cheap shot off the backs of residents with valid concerns by trampling our democratic rights, but doing so will be a defining moment in Premier McGuinty’s Premiership. Not only is an attack on the fundamental rights of Ontarian’s a really bad idea at any point, but to do so during an economic crisis that seems to get worse with the day and when that should be the Premier’s only focus – is unforgiveable. Try convincing a laid off worker in Oshawa that picking a fight with the good people of Scarborough and ramming through anti-democratic legislation somehow helps them when they’re trying to pay their mortgage on the 55% of their former salary that EI benefits provide. Try convincing someone in Guildwood who needs to worry about the shape their pension fund  or RRSP is in with all the hits the market has taken that attacking their right of dissent at a moment like this is the most important thing on your agenda. Good Luck.

Is there seriously a single person remotely involved in politics that believes the groups in place across Ontario the Premier and his Deputy are so intent on dismissing and attacking all at once – couldn’t or wouldn’t ‘re-tool’ for the next election and punish those who took away their rights? Perhaps there would not be a push in this direction had the Premier not lashed out at those who oppose his poorly thought out green energy strategy. Now – he risks galvanizing that anger and costing a number of good Liberal MPPs their day jobs. Is there a thinking person anywhere that thinks someone who sees the Premier to not be doing enough on the economy will understand why this side show fight he started was worth having?

The Premier needs to back away from this “NIMBY-ism” crap he made up.

If the Premier wants to get serious about Green Energy production in the province of Ontario and this current process isn’t just part of a dog and pony show designed to make the Premier look big and strong using Mike Harris’s playbook, than the Premier will get serious on the environment and develop some real standards for wind production in Ontario.

We need to follow international standards found virtually everywhere else in the world.

The British Columbia offshore wind project has to go through a Federal, Provincial and Haida environmental assessment – all of which are separate. European offshore projects go through full environmental assessments too, as do the offshore projects in the United States.  Consider that none of these projects are in fresh water, and the proposed offshore project in Scarborough will stir up sediment and cause unknown impacts on Toronto’s drinking water (45% of which is collected down current and well within range of the project site). Here the best we get is a ‘proponent driven, self assessment’.

All projects of this size are a minimum of 5 kilometres offshore because half a dozen European countries recognize this is the minimum amount of space required for ‘nature conservation’ on shore. The average project is 12 kilometres offshore in recognition of this.

Ontario wind energy projects should also commit to following internationally recognized setbacks on land, and minimum wind viability thresholds to ensure future projects are properly sited and viable.

It is pretty clear to me that the Green Energy Act has literally nothing to do with the environment or energy production and very little to do with tangible job creation. It is part of a communications strategy that will give the Premier the opportunity to try to point to some ‘good news’ items as he moves forward into what will undoubtedly be a dark economic time for Ontario.

I strongly call on Premier McGuinty and Minister Smitherman to rethink stomping on democratic rights of Ontario’s municipalities and citizens simply as part of a communications strategy and instead use the opportunity presented by their mentioning of a green energy act to set some standards to ensure Ontario’s wind projects at least make sense on paper before we throw billions of dollars at them.

No Ontarian can seriously oppose a full environmental assessment on the impact of such a massive structure. If the Premier wanted to show leadership – he would demand we preserve nature and he would defend the democratic right to dissent from government. His inability to do so should send a chill through every activist’s spine – your cause could be the next one outlawed.

The Premier still has time to get is priorities straight and to walk away from the public policy disaster and aboutface to his well constructed image he is currently flirting with. Preserve nature, the environment and democratic principles – focus on the economy and leave this issue alone or vastly change your tact.