David O’Brien Retires as President and CEO of Toronto Hydro Corporation, Is the New Boss the Same as the Old Boss?

by John Laforet
posted on August 18th, 2009 at 10:33:59 am

I have to say when I heard about the retirement of David O’Brien I was hopeful that Toronto Hydro might have the opportunity to bring in someone new, hopefully someone who has operated in the real world and has actually worked for a real company that is required to do things like respect shareholders, generate revenue, make responsible business decisions, not kill the pets of their customers, or electrocute their children through a mix of ignorance and negligence. That being said, someone looking at Toronto Hydro, and especially Toronto Hydro Energy Services from the real world probably would head for the hills before accepting the golden handcuffs that would bring them into the fold of this loonie bin.

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.

The Entrenched Corporate Irresponsibility of Toronto Hydro Energy Services

by John Laforet
posted on March 11th, 2009 at 13:21:10 pm

These guys represent to me the contaminated lake bed sediment at the bottom of the corporate responsibility barrel.

If it wasn’t bad enough they have purposely denied residents their right to participate in a consultation process on three occasions, before Minister Smitherman and the Premier McGuinty stepped in to take over trying to land the body blows on the community, they’re also now refusing to release what is very public information.

The Toronto Star said of Mr. Smitherman that “George Smitherman couldn’t find the political high road with a state-of-the-art GPS”. Well I’m not sure that Chris Tyrrell, Jack Simpson and Joyce McLean at Toronto Hydro Energy Services would even be capable of turning on the GPS to search for this mystery road none of them seems interested in traveling on.

The fact is there is not sufficient wind for the proposed site where Toronto Hydro Energy Services would like to construct an offshore wind project. They have demonstrated they have no concern about the possible environmental impacts it is sure to have on Ontario’s drinking water, lake ecology and certainly on shoreline erosion. They also don’t care what the community thinks, or what it will cost.

Joyce McLean failed miserably in trying to sell this ridiculous project. Her mixture of lies and misleading facts blew up so badly, residents came out of the woodwork to fight Toronto Hydro Energy Services off and stand up for the environment and the other things they, at Hydro, clearly don’t care about. By conscripting Minister Smitherman and Premier McGuinty to fight their battles for them after McLean failed to do so – she’s now put them in a situation where an automatic three seats in Toronto have now become competitive and there is no way Smitherman could realistically expect to be able to win a Mayor’s race after his commentary on the good people of Scarborough, to which even now – no apology has been made. So now that it has been recognized that Toronto Hydro’s “Director of Strategic Services” is more like the orchestrator of unmitigated public relations disasters – she’s itching for another fight. She chose to turn a very simple request from me into a gong show.

I asked for some public information last Monday, it’s Wednesday (eight business days later) and the back and forth continues, with the bureaucrat at the Ministry of Natural Resources who will eventually rubber stamp whatever BS McLean and Anne Mometer throw together and send their way, being cc’d on everything. I warned Hydro – starting an unnecessary fight would result in a public complaint on my part.

I’ve asked Chris Tyrrell, the President of Toronto Hydro Energy Services to step in and provide some adult supervision to Ms. McLean as she continues to put Toronto Hydro Energy Services into yet another totally indefensible position. I certainly hope he demonstrates being in possession of an ounce of integrity and common sense that he may be able to share with McLean to prevent another embarrassing round that Toronto Hydro Energy Services has no hope of winning.

How can anyone expect taking away community’s rights to opposition is a good thing when as it is, the organizations that are so hard done by are already denying information they are legally obligated to release. Pending Tyrrell’s response, or lack there of, I will disclose the emails that have gone back and forth for context.

Developing.

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.