Posts Tagged ‘Toronto Hydro Offshore Wind Farm’
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).
5 Comments »Unedited Audio of Toronto Hydro's January 20th Community Meeting
Three Toronto Hydro executives walk into a bar auditorium… While points of this meeting did result in the simultaneous outburst in laughter of over 700 Guildwood Villagers, unfortunately this is all too serious to be considered a joke. Residents do take this extremely seriously, but some of the statements Joyce McLean and Jack Simpson relied on were closer to punch lines than facts. Listen for yourself.
The link below will allow you to download the unedited tape of the question and answer portion of the Toronto Hydro Energy Services meeting in Guildwood on January 20th 2009.
I won’t say too much except the meeting did not comply with the City of Toronto act, nor did it comply with the requirements of a Class B Environmental Assessment. Unfortunately for Toronto Hydro – this meeting isn’t the only reason their application is bogus.
Joyce McLean, Jack Simpson and Chris Tyrrell all lied at this meeting. Each made statements they knew (based on Toronto Hydro’s own materials) was simply untrue. None of these individuals has any credibility as so much of what they said can and has been (in many cases) disproved. They should all be ashamed of themselves, and if they had any integrity, they would resign from their positions with Toronto’s public utility, before they do anymore damage to this entity. Joyce McLean should lead the way as her actions have been by far the most irresponsible of the bunch.
Feel free to take a listen, and to share with me the most ridiculous whopper or laugh line any of these folks threw out for public consumption during the meeting. I will post the best on my blog.
http://www.laforet.ca/media/hydro_meeting.mp3 (right click and select ‘save link as’ to save the .mp3)
Personally, my favourite part was when Jack Simpson twice said no public money was being used to finance the research (how this is even possible considering they are entirely publicly owned I don’t know) and then McLean later admitted to recieving public funds from outside Toronto Hydro’s profits, then got confused regarding sources and amounts and Jack Simpson (who had previously lied about this) stepped up and provided her clarification on the details of outside public funding.
As always, I welcome Toronto Hydro Energy Services to refute any claim I’ve made here. As we all know, unanswered claims become a matter of fact to the public with time. Toronto Hydro’s refusual to refute any of the claims I’ve made in past demonstrates a willingness to accept what I’ve said to be true. While I appreciate their agreement of facts, it is frankly unusual for these folks to not offer at least a misleading weasel word laden statement in their defense.
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