We always said if we could push them into the winter months – we’d have more time. To the folks at Toronto Hydro – my heartfelt thanks to you for giving us more time to defeat you.

Toronto Hydro Energy Services employs some of the dimmest lights I’ve personally encountered at the ‘Director’ or ‘Vice President’ level. These foolish individuals who’ve flatly refused to do any sort of meaningful environmental assessment have failed to understand the conditions, and had them moving their construction barge all over the general area looking for a place they could install the device.

Guildwood residents are quick though and pushed back whenever it appeared not to be in the correct spot. We now have emails from Joyce McLean stating on two occasions the construction barge was at the right coordinates at which point it moved again, and she once again confirmed it was in the right spot, and then it moved again. Once again – something she says simply can’t be true.

Many of us had that ‘kick in the stomach’ feeling watching this barge try and figure out how to anchor something in the sand bar off the Bluffs, worried and wondering about the anemometer or possibility for turbines in the future. Seeing this play out, and being able to literally hear the voices, the songs on the radio, and the sound of a generator running from the barge have shown how the sound will travel over water – something that will only strengthen community resolve.

Toronto Hydro Energy Services is in for one hell of a fight. Residents will not back down until Toronto Hydro’s proposal is defeated and disgraced. Not a single turbine will be going off our shores, and those who want to keep pushing the idea have my sincere pledge that we, residents of the area will fight you and will never give up until this horrible idea is gone, and our lakes are protected from the untold environmental degradation involved in installing these things.

Toronto Hydro took a big step forward in their defeat by backing off on this proposal. Something they claimed would take a month took nearly two and ended in failure. Just like this whole proposal will soon enough.

Residents have a lot of work to do to convince our City Councillors who have been slow and ineffective, the City of Toronto and Toronto Hydro Energy Services to stop this proposal.

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).

The Scarborough Mirror says ‘John Laforet isn’t surprised to hear the anemometer is going in, however it was news to him it would be going in next week.’ Scarborough Mirror – Wind research platform approved – October 23th 2009

Rightly so.

Joyce McLean’s very friendly email to Councillor Paul Ainslie (below in italics) was sent on August 21st 2009 and states:

“Good morning -This is to inform you that today John Gerretsen, the Ontario Minister of Environment officially denied the 6 Part II orders (bump up requests) for an individual environmental assessment for the offshore anemometer proposed by Toronto Hydro. The process now reverts to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources for final approval. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Joyce”

It would be nice if Councillor Ainslie was as friendly with residents of our community as he is with the folks at the municipally owned Toronto Hydro. Guildwood sure could use a friend right now, that’s for sure.

In the spirit of repeating old news as Toronto Hydro has done today, I will re-post my response to the first time their illegal application was approved on August 21st 2009.

Direct Message To My Readers At Toronto Hydro – I Will Comment On Your Illegal Application Later

by John Laforet
posted on August 21st, 2009 at 10:39:26 am

‘Never fight a battle where your opponent has everything to lose, because if they fear the prospect of a loss that steep they have nothing to lose in doing everything possible to defeat you.’ – John Laforet

To my readers at Toronto Hydro who have visited over eighty-one (81) blog entries on http://laforet.ca since this morning (it is 10:38 AM). I am sure you’re looking to see what I have to say about your illegal application that John Gerretsen decided to sign off on this week.

It is still illegal, you’re still a cesspool for unethical behaviour, flagrant violators of law and Guildwood residents are angrier than ever before. I still have nothing but contempt for anyone at Toronto Hydro who stubbornly supports wasting $700 million dollars of public money, damaging the environment and building a project we all know (yes you too) will never generate enough electricity to pay for itself.

We will defeat you.

You should know, not one turbine will be going in Lake Ontario off the Scarborough Bluffs, and you’re wasting your time and our money persueing your misadventure off the Bluffs.

We will ensure there will be consequences.

We will respond, and it will be fierce. We’re in this for the long haul and will not allow a single turbine to enter the Lake off our shores as part of your illegal application, through your law breaking, lies and other dirty tricks.

You will be stopped.

David O’Brien has already retired, perhaps it’s time for Chris Tyrrell, Jack Simpson and Joyce McLean to walk the plank before the next round of Scarborough Vs. Toronto Hydro kicks off.

If I were to write a modern ‘Prince’ or ‘Art of War’ this would be a message, I would dedicate to you: ‘Never fight a battle where your opponent has everything to lose, because if they fear the prospect of a loss that steep, they have nothing to lose in doing everything possible to defeat you.’

Toronto Hydro Electric System employees and trucks already service these lines, but Toronto Hydro Corporation claims safety enhancements can be made by selling something they already own to themselves and continuing to use assets they already own and employees they already employ to continue to service these poles, they too already own.

You may remember these poles from those horrible incidences over the winter where family pets and small children were being electrocuted, and Toronto Hydro Energy Services failed to respond for months, until publicly humiliated into doing so.

Originally the poles were owned by the City of Toronto, for decades in fact, until David Soknacki as David Miller’s first budget chief ran out of money needed to balance the budget and decided to sell the front lawn of the Ontario Science Centre to the Provincial Government and sell the City’s streetlights to Toronto Hydro Energy Services for the remaining $60 million he needed. The best part was then too, even though it was already Toronto Hydro trucks servicing this infrastructure enhanced safety was cited as a benefit. That was before the tragic death of family pets, and the electrocution of small children brought on by poor maintenance, a lack of understanding of the infrastructure and a denial of the problem.

Moving these poles into Toronto Hydro Electric Services and licensing them as part of the distribution system for Toronto (which they are not) would move the liability directly onto the shoulders of rate payers, in addition to allowing the City to cease paying for the upkeep of these poles or their energy usage and instead passing those costs directly onto residential, commercial and industrial customers of Toronto Hydro.

I am looking forward to using the opportunity to be an Intervenor at these hearings to seek evidence from Toronto Hydro Energy Services, Toronto Hydro Electric System, the shell company and Toronto Hydro Corporation to determine the merit behind the enhanced safety claims, the merit of an internal wealth transfer, and the impacts this could have on customer’s bills.

Members of Save the Toronto Bluffs will be seeking to represent the interests of all Torontonian ratepayers at the Ontario Energy Board hearing and will be fighting to keep unnecessary increases to your bills from happening in addition to forcing transparency on a corporation in desperate need of an airing out.

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.

It seems there are still eco-bullies in high places who know so little about the internet they don’t get why their highly ignorant and insensitive comments get them in hot water. Natural Resources is probably the most inappropriate place for someone to be belittling an individuals moving and painful experience. As such, I hope the comment results in an individual finding themselves removed from the public service. 

First read this post about Barbara Ashbee having to abandon her home due to the health effects of a poorly planned wind project, and then view the totally insensitive comment from some Ottawa based hack who could choose to help residents, but instead decides to mock them. 

Below is the comment the cowardly individual from Natural Resources left. 

Please let me know when the property comes up for sale. Since everyone claims that property values will decrese, I will expect a bargain basement price!

Not only does this person not know how to spell but I checked the IP address of the originator of this comment and lo and behold:
 
OrgName:    Natural Resources Canada
OrgID:      NRC-41
Address:    580 Booth Street
City:       Ottawa
StateProv:  ON
PostalCode: K1A-0E4
Country:    CA

Author : (IP: 132.156.196.29 , 132.156.196.29) E-mail :
URL :
Whois :
http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=132.156.196.29

Here is the Wind Concerns Ontario post on this incident. 

Based on my previous writings on Toronto Hydro it’s pretty clear that I do not believe anyone on their executive team has the skill set or intelligence to confidently change a light bulb let alone run the largest utility in the province. While everything Midas touched turned to Gold, it seems everything Toronto Hydro touches turns into an unnecessary legal situation brought on by a unique mix of callousness, ignorance and incompetence. 

These guys have once again breached the privacy of Torontonians, this time through their online billing system. It seems the folks at Toronto Hydro are incapable of working technology if it was developed after 1992 (the internet, wind turbines, adobe – let alone 90 year old hydro poles). 

They knowingly allowed their infrastructure to electrocute and kill people’s family pets, promising to fix that problem over the course of months while more pets needlessly suffered electrocution. They denied kids could be electrocuted until many were one afternoon. They’ve lied left right and centre as part of their illegal application for the installation of an anemometer off the Scarborough Bluffs. They breached hundreds of individuals privacy during that process, and now 179 000 of their client’s private data is breached through their website. 

When their lawyer reviewed my writings on Toronto Hydro’s illegal application, culture of lying and general inability to operate with the slightest bit of competence during a public consultation process – she agreed that the application I had linked to constituted a violation of law, did not dispute any of my charges and merely asked me to change the link to a new illegal application that was missing some of their privacy act violations.

The scary part is these guys are involved in very serious business and clearly well over their heads. 

They’ve already killed people’s family pets, failed to act immediately to prevent further deaths, electrocuted children who were just playing in the streets, committed over three hundred violations of law as part of their anemometer application, and now failed to properly secure their 179 000 client’s private data. If this represents the last few months at Toronto Hydro – what’s next? 

They still have done nothing to address their breach of privacy for the over three hundred individuals including myself affected by their illegal application’s breach of privacy in April. If you’re one of the 179 000 clients whose privacy has been breached, my only words for you with these guys is ‘good luck’.

Toronto Hydro Corporation attracts scandal like sugar attracts ants. 

It’s a good thing they aren’t responsible for the drinking water. 

It isn’t known how the privacy breach occurred this time, but the Toronto Police and the Privacy Commissioner are investigating. 

For more on their latest privacy breach (the second in three months) see the links below:

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

In the early hours of April 15 2009, I wrote a blog entry called ‘THES Illegal Application Accepted by Bought and Paid For Ontario Liberal Government’. In it I included two links to Toronto Hydro’s Project Evaluation Report and another to the Project Evaluation Report’s Appendices. I titled them “Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Application – Project Evaluation Report” and “Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Application Appendices. I used the word ‘illegal’ because Toronto Hydro Energy Services has failed to comply with the legal requirements one is expected to meet to get to the point of filing a Project Evaluation Report for public review. 

It turns out these links which I provided to folks in good faith to allow as many people as possible to read and comment on Toronto Hydro’s illegal application were in fact linked to reports that breached the privacy of hundred of respondents who have come forward to participate in the sham consultation process. Toronto Hydro Energy Services failed to live up to it’s legal obligation to protect the private information of hundreds of individuals who wrote to them and made their information easily accessible by anyone with a .pdf reader and a limited understanding how .pdfs work. 

David O’Brien, President of Toronto Hydro Corporation, wrote a response to me this afternoon after I complained about a breach of my personal information. The subject line he chose was “Violation of Privacy” . In the body of the email he states “Toronto Hydro Energy Services advises that personal information was inadvertently provided in the digital copy of an Appendix to the Project Evaluation Report for the proposed Anemometer in Lake Ontario.”

He goes on to explain it has been pulled from the website, would be corrected and a new copy would be posted, this time without violating the privacy of hundreds of Guildwood and other Scarborough Bluffs residents. 

Before I got this email however, I noted there was a considerable amount of traffic on my website considering I had not written anything in days. Toronto Hydro Corporation logged a total of 73 page visits on http://laforet.ca today between 8am and 5:30pm. Considering the ‘Anne Mometer‘ incident the folks at Gartner Lee (where the Project Evaluation Report was drafted) and Toronto Hydro Corporation had stopped what were 30 page views a day visits and have opted for more discreet, less frequent visits. 

Around 5:15pm today, I got an email from Toronto Hydro Corporation’s Legal Department. Any email that begins with “Dear Mr. Laforet: Your blog currently contains…” generally can’t be expected to end well. Especially if it’s marked ‘high priority’ and coming from someone whose title is ‘Senior Commercial Solicitor’. 

That being said; this email wasn’t a libel chill or what one might expect a blogger to receive from a corporation one is jousting with. That’s what makes it kind of neat. 

Toronto Hydro’s legal department states “That version of the Project Evaluation Report and appendices has been removed from the Toronto Hydro Energy Services web site and has been replaced with a revised version that restricts the display of personal information.”

“We are requesting that you please immediately remove the current link and replace it with the following (and advise your readers that a new link is now available):”

For clarification the link Toronto Hydro’s legal department has asked me to correct is the ‘Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Appendices’ to ensure it is the right version of their illegal appendices and not the one that also contravenes privacy legislation is made available. I’ve also corrected the link to ‘Toronto Hydro Energy Services Illegal Project Evaluation Report’ – the one I referred to as Bull Shit. 

Regular readers at http://laforet.ca are aware that Toronto Hydro Energy Services has often been invited to respond unedited to any of the accusations I’ve made about their conduct plan or other information relevant to this proposal. In fact, there is a standing offer out there. At no point has anyone from Toronto Hydro Energy Services ever taken me up on this, and frankly when I saw all the activity from Toronto Hydro Corporation today on my site, I was anticipating a libel chill – although it would be baseless, it is a tactic big bullies have often used against their online detractors. 

When I received an email from a lawyer with Toronto Hydro Corporation who had read ”THES Illegal Application Accepted by Bought and Paid For Ontario Liberal Government” and knew someone at Toronto Hydro Corporation had viewed “A Process As Tainted As the Lake Bed They’d Like to Disturb” and The Entrenched Corporate Irresponsibility of Toronto Hydro Energy Services in addition to a number of other pieces, part of me was intrigued that there was no mention of the language I’ve used to describe Toronto Hydro Energy Services.

I’m not a lawyer, but I have a reasonably sound understanding of law. I would like to think in a situation like this, if I was on their side of the fence, I would not have someone from a legal department contact an individual who regularly lays body blows on the organization requesting his help in minimizing the impact of that organization’s breach of law. I would only contact someone like that if they crossed the line, but certainly not after having read so many unanswered charges. If I was on the other side of this particularly situation, I would have asked O’Brien (who wrote me anyways on this topic and likely with legal input) to throw in a P.S. or something. 

I am someone who has demonstrated his concern for the Guildwood community through years of public involvement. One of the men or women spray painting hand wells, after making sure THES would no longer continue killing family pets with them, could have asked and I would have gladly complied. 

Naturally I do stand by comments I’ve made and have stated in past I am fully prepared to back them up, if ever challenged to. But for THES to have someone in their legal department to not take issue with any of this and to contact me about something that is resolved by simply killing the links and letting me figure it out on my own, I found interesting. 

To me, it demonstrated they too recognize nothing I’ve said has crossed the line and isn’t actionable. Which in itself raises some interesting questions about what their internal legal opinion is of their own situation and conduct. Personally I like to make sure I am prepared to defend my actions before doing anything, but I’ve found a link with the advice for the folks at Toronto Hydro Energy Services to review: How to Respond to Accusations When Guilty

As I said before, I’m not a lawyer, but the actions of Toronto Hydro Energy Services and it’s employees and agents have been so inappropriate, I’ve known for months and have been open about how crappy of a spot they’ve put themselves in. 

Thank you for those who took time to guess where you thought Anne Mometer worked. I have been highly critical of Toronto Hydro Energy Services complete incompetence as it relates to the public consultation process of this project, and now I must admit to a failure of my own. You see, in a spirit of fair warning, I announced that the poll would close at 8:00pm tonight. I then set it to close tonight at that time. But it closed early and I was unable to fix the problem. Toronto Hydro Energy Services and I share a challenge in maintaining an ‘open’ consultation. Mine was technical and unfortunate, Toronto Hydro’s challenge was by design and is considerably more suspect. In recognition of this shared challenge, however, I will agree that I will not propose or try to build any poorly thought out, poorly located or ill advised, wind power projects in Lake Ontario. Heck, I’ll go so far as to call for the Scarborough Bluffs to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and promise not to recommend any energy projects on Lake Ontario. I wonder if Toronto Hydro Energy Services will join me in making a similar commitment?

I’m sure a lot of people wanted to know why I asked where individuals thought Anne Mometer worked, especially considering I can already confirm without a shadow of a doubt her place of employment. Some may have thought it was an attempt to have some fun at Anne’s expense, but in truth, it was a measure of trust. I wanted to know which company, readers believed, would be most likely to have an employee who hiding behind an unoriginal moniker while insulting someone who has made cogent arguments against a bad project. You answered. You answered clearly.

An overwhelming majority of readers believed that Anne Mometer would be found at Toronto Hydro Energy Services with 56% of respondents choosing this option. The City of Toronto was deemed the second most likely hidden lair of Anne Mometer by 22% of respondents. The Ontario Power Authority came in third with 14%  of readers believing Anne spent her days reading my blog from this provincial agency. 6% of readers thought Anne worked at the Independent Electricity Operator, while just 2% thought Anne worked at Gartner Lee (AECOM).

I think we can all agree anyone who has time to visit a website some thirty times between 9:30AM and 3:30PM yesterday can’t be a terribly useful employee or one who has a heck of a lot to do. Today Anne’s IP address visited thirty three times between 9:45AM and 3:45PM. It appears her work is uninterrupted for a total of two hours of the business day on average. Her work output of 25% capacity is actually twice Toronto Hydro Energy Services five year average energy output to capacity at it’s single wind turbine project. Perhaps this is why people thought Anne worked at Toronto Hydro? Considering 12% capacity is considered defensible within this organization, it seems reasonable that many would have thought this as a natural home for Anne.  But Anne doesn’t work there.

The City of Toronto takes a lot of flak for the sometimes head scratching things that come out of City Council, such as a bloated budget and the traditional dislike of bureaucrats. I think bureaucrats on the whole are hard working folks who would be ashamed to work with someone as lazy as Anne. – She doesn’t work there either.

The Ontario Power Authority isn’t technically a partner in this project and has the good sense to recognize projects like this are simply a bad idea. Such insight would presumably preclude allowing members of staff to sit at their computer’s reading blogs all day. She doesn’t work there.

Okay. So there are two choices left: is it – The Ontario Electricity System Operator – The guys responsible for making sure the lights stay on and for the day-to-day management of the electricity market in Ontario? These are the guys who have to deal with the constant under delivery of promised electricity supply from industrial wind generators. Considering, 58% of the time, wind developers under deliver causing increased expense to the system – they probably loathe folks like Anne who don’t really seem to do much. A lack of productivity from others causes these folks to have to pick up the slack and solve the wind industry’s regular failures to deliver on their short term forecasts. Anne doesn’t work there either.

So that leaves one option – AECOM (Gartner Lee). Anne Mometer works at a firm that describes itself as “a Canadian-based firm at the forefront of our industry in providing environmental science, economics, planning and engineering services.” Really? Anne Mometer? The person who sits online reading a single blog thirty times in a single day? We’re trusting her to even spell environment?

Seriously. Anne Mometer, who has the high honour and distinction of being my single biggest reader (by frequency) of late, works at a firm that is responsible for determining the environmental concerns of projects and designing plans that strike a balance between the two.

Is anyone else concerned that Anne Mometer can work at a firm responsible for such serious aspects of a project like this, and not even understand enough about wind power to know that you can’t just increase wind to generate electricity but do in fact need turbines to spin to translate the wind strength into usable energy?

Is anyone else concerned that Anne Mometer – an employee of AECOM is the only official to respond to my open invitation for unedited response from anyone at Toronto Hydro Energy Services? I will give her top marks for speed. I posted the following at 7:15AM on January 27th 2009. “I welcome anyone at Toronto Hydro Energy Services to challenge any of the claims I’ve made here. I will publish any unedited response I receive from anyone at Toronto Hydro Energy Services so long as it addresses the points in here.”

Anne Mometer of AECOM’s response was received at 10:11AM the same day. While she is technically not from Toronto Hydro Energy Services, AECOM is a partner in the project and I did hold up my pledge to publish any unedited response I received. 

I will welcome anyone from AECOM who would like to respond to this to do so. Feel free to email me at john.laforet@laforet.ca to do so. I will publish unedited verifiable response I receive from AECOM.

Think I’ve been tough on Anne? Anne isn’t real. But the concerns above are.