Peaker plant petition

By Miriam King Bradford Times November 18 2010
When the Province of Ontario stepped in to end the debate over a proposed natural gas-fired “peaker” plant at the very edge of the Holland Marsh – and by Order in Council, exempted York Energy Centre (Pristine Energy) from the provisions of the Planning Act – there were protests from King Twp. Then-Mayor Margaret Black wrote to Premier Dalton McGuinty, Minister of Energy Brad Duguid, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Jim Bradley, Jim Prentice – Environment Minister, and Lieutenant-Governor David C. Onley, to express her disappointment with the decision “to circumvent the very process set up to publicly adjudicate such proposals.”
Black wrote, “We remind you that these lands are located in a sensitive part of the Greenbelt that was established with great fanfare by your Government,” and noted, “We as a municipality have followed your legislative process to the letter of the law at considerable expense to our taxpayers, yet you have moved to override us right in the middle of an Ontario Municipal Board hearing.”
On September 30, King Twp. tried again. In a telephone conference with Minister of Energy Brad Duguid, the Township posed 5 questions.
“The #1 question is, can we stop the peaker plant?” said Councillor Jack Rupke. “The answer was “no”.”
Asked why not, the Minister said that the plant was needed to secure the power supply for North Toronto/GTA, and that it would be built as quickly as possible. And asked if the Twp. would receive compensation for its legal costs to date, estimated between $250,000 and $500,000, Duguid said he would “look into it.”
“The Ontario Power Authority has made a huge mistake by picking this site,” said Rupke, suggesting that the decision was made on the basis of “strictly dollars and cents,” without considering the environmental ramifications of locating on a floodplain, within the Greenbelt. Now, he said, the Provincial government is in the position of “covering up for OPA, at our expense.”
Just days later, on October 7, the McGuinty government announced the cancellation of a similar peaker plant in Oakville, in favor of a transmission solution – and an outraged Mayor Black held a press conference “to bring to light our own unfortunate situation, and the unfairness about this government’s abuse of the democratic process… Our rejection of the placement of the plant in King Twp. has been ignored.”
She noted, “Unlike Oakville, our community holds only 20,000 votes” but told the premier, “All your citizens deserve equal treatment… There are alternative sites, which we believe are better-suited, and we expect that your government will, like they did in Oakville, do the right thing and find a better solution.
“We deserve the right to due process. No more. No less.”
Neither Black nor Rupke were returned to office in the October 25 municipal election, but the protest has continued – and grown.
Councillor-elect and Holland Marsh Farmer Avia Eek is circulating a petition, asking the Province to give “the King Twp. peaker plant and the local community the same consideration as residents of Oakville, and to decide on the future of the peaker plant on a non-partisan basis.” Eek also asks for help in preserving the Holland Marsh “by saying no to a power plant in the Salad Bowl of Ontario.”
MPP for York-Simcoe Julia Munro has agreed to present the petitions to the Legislative Assembly, at the end of the month, on behalf of residents and farmers across Ontario.