Dalton McGuinty, you bastard.
Is anyone else absolutely furious by Dalton McGuinty's new proposal of building a gas power-plant in the undeveloped land of the cherry beach area?
Power plant is coming, premier tells T.O.
Jan. 31, 2006. 01:00 AM
RICHARD BRENNAN
STAFF REPORTERS
"We need to build new generation inside the city of Toronto. We can't duck this. ... It's either that or we talk about rolling blackouts," McGuinty told reporters at Queen's Park yesterday.
"In an ideal world, we could get to where we need to go through conservation and renewables like wind. But we don't live in that world. We live in this one."
That was an apparent reference to Mayor David Miller's comment that the city should first try to conserve energy before going ahead with a controversial gas-fired power plant in the port lands at a cost of more than $500 million.
Just last month, Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator issued a report saying Toronto faces rotating blackouts within two years unless urgent action is taken to get new power generators and transmission lines to serve the city.
"We have a growing economy and a growing population and I hope that all of us who have the privilege of serving (in) the position of responsibility understand that it's something that we have to do - we are going to have to build more generation inside the city of Toronto," McGuinty said.
Ontario Power Generation and TransCanada Corp. have proposed building a 550-megawatt, gas-fired generating station on Toronto's eastern waterfront near the site of the mothballed Hearn generating station. But the project has faced opposition from nearby residents.
The Liberal government will have to instruct the Ontario Power Authority to make the new generating station happen.
A spokesperson said Energy Minister Donna Cansfield would be issuing a directive to the authority within the next few weeks outlining various options on how to get more power to downtown.
Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) vowed to battle any big generation development in the port lands. "If you want to fight, let's get into it," Fletcher said in an interview.
Source
This is ridiculous. Not only did McGuinty promise to reduce Ontario's fossil fuel emmissions by slowly shutting down the coal burning facilities by 2007 (and so far he hasn't been fulfilling his promises) but now he's proposing to build a gas burning power plant RIGHT next to one of the most smog-affected areas in North America? People of Leslieville, Riverdale, Riverside and the Beaches suffer enough from emmissions from the DVP and now McGuinty wants to pollute one of our vital greenspaces?
What happened to fixing up the water front? What happened to gentrifying and cleaning up that whole area? McGuinty is proposing to build a power plant right next to a future movie studio! Toronto's movie industry has suffered enough in the past five years, and now he's proposing to build a noisy dirty power plant right next to one of the soon-to-be key sites of the whole area?
I doubt patrons of the Docks club or residents of Toronto's Wards Island are going to be too happy about yet another industrial facility moving in and further turning the whole area into an eye-sore. Especially after the city has pledged all that money to revitalize the area.
Dalton McGuinty should be focusing on expanding green space and green technology, ESPECIALLY in urban areas. The Cherry Beach area has a lot of potential for parks and recreation, and this is possibly the worst thing that can happen to that goal.
Furthermore, hasn't Toronto just experienced the warmest January on the book? Isn't that just a little, you know, weird? So with the climate blatantly changing in front of our eyes you'd think that our politicians would start to take global warming seriously and would work with communities to you know... cut emmissions. Where the fuck has McGuinty been? Does he even know about the movie studio they're building there?
I understand that McGuinty is worried about black outs and power surges, but he should be pushing money forward into campaigns teaching people how to CONSERVE energy. This is a classic case of solving a problem that could easily be prevented in the first place.
And wind generation is a more than viable option, you can run 250 homes with one windmill and in the long run it will prove to be a lot less pricy given the rise in oil prices. Geothermal heating is and even better option. It takes roughly 4 grand to convert a home to geothermal technology, and it pays itself off in a year or two... why isn't this option being made known to the public?
I know the Green Party is probably going stark raving mad over this right now. I urge you, the people of Toronto, to holler at your City Counselors, the Toronto-Danforth MP Jack Layton and Beaches-East York MPP Marilyn Churley. It's good to here that Paula Fletcher is already vehemently opposing this, and I hope Jack Layton actually stands up and does something for Toronto-Danforth for a change.
Power plant is coming, premier tells T.O.
Jan. 31, 2006. 01:00 AM
RICHARD BRENNAN
STAFF REPORTERS
"We need to build new generation inside the city of Toronto. We can't duck this. ... It's either that or we talk about rolling blackouts," McGuinty told reporters at Queen's Park yesterday.
"In an ideal world, we could get to where we need to go through conservation and renewables like wind. But we don't live in that world. We live in this one."
That was an apparent reference to Mayor David Miller's comment that the city should first try to conserve energy before going ahead with a controversial gas-fired power plant in the port lands at a cost of more than $500 million.
Just last month, Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator issued a report saying Toronto faces rotating blackouts within two years unless urgent action is taken to get new power generators and transmission lines to serve the city.
"We have a growing economy and a growing population and I hope that all of us who have the privilege of serving (in) the position of responsibility understand that it's something that we have to do - we are going to have to build more generation inside the city of Toronto," McGuinty said.
Ontario Power Generation and TransCanada Corp. have proposed building a 550-megawatt, gas-fired generating station on Toronto's eastern waterfront near the site of the mothballed Hearn generating station. But the project has faced opposition from nearby residents.
The Liberal government will have to instruct the Ontario Power Authority to make the new generating station happen.
A spokesperson said Energy Minister Donna Cansfield would be issuing a directive to the authority within the next few weeks outlining various options on how to get more power to downtown.
Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) vowed to battle any big generation development in the port lands. "If you want to fight, let's get into it," Fletcher said in an interview.
Source
This is ridiculous. Not only did McGuinty promise to reduce Ontario's fossil fuel emmissions by slowly shutting down the coal burning facilities by 2007 (and so far he hasn't been fulfilling his promises) but now he's proposing to build a gas burning power plant RIGHT next to one of the most smog-affected areas in North America? People of Leslieville, Riverdale, Riverside and the Beaches suffer enough from emmissions from the DVP and now McGuinty wants to pollute one of our vital greenspaces?
What happened to fixing up the water front? What happened to gentrifying and cleaning up that whole area? McGuinty is proposing to build a power plant right next to a future movie studio! Toronto's movie industry has suffered enough in the past five years, and now he's proposing to build a noisy dirty power plant right next to one of the soon-to-be key sites of the whole area?
I doubt patrons of the Docks club or residents of Toronto's Wards Island are going to be too happy about yet another industrial facility moving in and further turning the whole area into an eye-sore. Especially after the city has pledged all that money to revitalize the area.
Dalton McGuinty should be focusing on expanding green space and green technology, ESPECIALLY in urban areas. The Cherry Beach area has a lot of potential for parks and recreation, and this is possibly the worst thing that can happen to that goal.
Furthermore, hasn't Toronto just experienced the warmest January on the book? Isn't that just a little, you know, weird? So with the climate blatantly changing in front of our eyes you'd think that our politicians would start to take global warming seriously and would work with communities to you know... cut emmissions. Where the fuck has McGuinty been? Does he even know about the movie studio they're building there?
I understand that McGuinty is worried about black outs and power surges, but he should be pushing money forward into campaigns teaching people how to CONSERVE energy. This is a classic case of solving a problem that could easily be prevented in the first place.
And wind generation is a more than viable option, you can run 250 homes with one windmill and in the long run it will prove to be a lot less pricy given the rise in oil prices. Geothermal heating is and even better option. It takes roughly 4 grand to convert a home to geothermal technology, and it pays itself off in a year or two... why isn't this option being made known to the public?
I know the Green Party is probably going stark raving mad over this right now. I urge you, the people of Toronto, to holler at your City Counselors, the Toronto-Danforth MP Jack Layton and Beaches-East York MPP Marilyn Churley. It's good to here that Paula Fletcher is already vehemently opposing this, and I hope Jack Layton actually stands up and does something for Toronto-Danforth for a change.