Born yesterday, dead tomorrow?

In spring 2005 I was invited to join the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) Working Group to help choose a site for a transformer station in York Region.

OPA staged presentations identifying a location on Miller Sideroad as the site most suited for their needs. The site was a five-acre parcel of land set far back from the road. Township council gave conditions under which this transformer could be built in King. Construction has begun and they are now bulldozing a 56-acre parcel of land immediately at the road, despite council's conditions.

OPA staged a Working Group reunion recently to provide updates about their new project, the gas-fired generator. King Township seems to be their preferred location once again. The big difference is that this time, council has the right to vote against the generator being built in King. OPA sent a representative to King council several weeks ago in an effort to garner council's support. Other municipalities have turned it down and they seem to be having a difficult time finding a home for this generator.

In the presentation to council, the OPA representative stated that the generator would cost $300 million to build. He then went on to tell council the generator wouldn't be used very much - only in times of extreme temperatures. A $300 million project that isn't going to be used very much? Either this is a flagrantly inefficient use of funds, or they are not disclosing their full intentions.

This generator will come with 150-foot industrial smokestacks. When asked by council what the smokestacks would emit, the OPA rep responded "heat." When asked by an astute councillor what the "heat" might contain, the OPA rep replied that he did not know.

It's pretty easy to find out that the "heat" contains Nitrogen Oxides, CO2 and particulates. No one builds 150-foot smokestacks so that good clean "heat" can be sent as far away as possible.

As the Township weighs the economic benefits of accepting a project which is currently unwanted anywhere else, the hydro companies are packaging "consideration gifts" in exchange for approval to build the generator here. A consultant for Northland Power recently communicated that King is in such dire economic straits, that without this generator King has no economic feasibility and suggested that we need their project to save King from demise.

King was born yesterday, according to the way the hydro companies have dealt with us, yet we'll be dead tomorrow if we don't let them save us. I have more faith in my Township council than to believe King can only be saved by one industrial hydro project. There are other options for municipalities such as King. With the beauty of our landscape, environmental protections to prevent overdevelopment, and provincial assistance available to regenerate our villages, we are in the enviable position to truly become York Region's Central Park. Let's not blow that, through a big smokestack.
Deborah Weiss,
King Township