King Township’s mayor and councillors are angry, and Premier Dalton McGuinty and his cabinet are about the hear it.

Council Monday night unanimously authorized Mayor Margaret Black to send a letter to McGuinty expressing concerns over the government’s latest move regarding the peaker plant proposed for the Holland Marsh by York Energy Centre (Prisine Power).

The Township got the word Friday from the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure that the government, through the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, is proposing to use a provision in the Planning Act that can exempt an undertaking related to energy from the requirements of the Act. This, in effect, deprives the municipality of the main tool it’s been using to fight the proposed facility before the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).

“The proposed regulation will enable streamlined land use approvals for the York Energy Centre in northern York Region,” stated a posting on the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s Web site, dated Friday. “This is required to allow the development of this new gas-fired generation facility to meet the need for new, clean, reliable power in an area of rapid growth.”

“I am really troubled that they are not following their own process,” Black commented over the weekend, expressing her indignation that the announcement came in the middle of a legal process. She also wondered if there was concern OMB was going to side with the Township.

“It’s interesting how it just came out of nowhere, out of the blue,” she added.

Councillor Jack Rupke, whose ward is slated to host the facility, was indignant too, wondering why the government waited so long, allowing the Township to devote a lot of money and staff time to following the established process.

“I’m going to go back and say, ‘Hey, you owe us Xnumber of dollars,’” he declared over the weekend. “That includes staff time, lawyers’ fees, all kinds of other expenses.”

Residents weren’t too pleased either.

Debbie Schaefer, chair of Concerned Citizens of King Township (CCKT), said the latest developments are “very, very upsetting.”

“It’s totally inconsistent with the democratic process we thought we lived under.”

Black read a draft of the letter to be send to McGuinty, with copies going to Energy and Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Jim Bradley, (at the suggestion of Councillor Jane Underhill) Environment Minister Jim Prentice and (at the suggestion of Councillor Jeff Laidlaw) Lt.-Gov. David Onley, aloud to her colleagues Monday night.

The letter has seen some changes since then.

“I cannot tell you how disappointed we are with your government’s decision to circumvent the very process set up to publicly adjudicate such proposals; a process that was established to protect the people and the environment of Ontario and to respect the voters’ wishes in the municipality,” the letter now reads.

“We remind you that these lands are located in a sensitive part of the Greenbelt that was established with great fanfare by your government, in addition to being located adjacent to the Holland Marsh, Ontario’s food basket.”

“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,” the letter added, as it “respectfully” requested the “established municipal planning process” continues.

In addition, council directed the Township’s solicitor, in consultation with Planning Director Stephen Kitchen, to come up with a response for the municipality.

Township CAO Scott Somerville told Laidlaw his suggestion to send a copy of the letter to Onley would do no harm, but probably not much good either.

“We may not get a response,” he said.

Black had no problems with the idea either.

“This is a very political situation, and we need all the help we can get,” she remarked.

Councillor Bill Cober was another who was annoyed at the staff time and effort that went into the process.

“All of a sudden, the province is telling us that doesn’t matter,” he complained.

“But our taxpayers matter and their tax dollars matter.”

Somerville told Cober they can put the Province and OMB on notice that the Township wants some form of compensation, but he wasn’t sure this was the time to make the pitch.

The municipality has been following the process so far, and he said that should continue.

The Township’s lawyer, James Feehely, told councillors the Planning Act contains the provisions to have it waved, but he said this was the first time it has been used.

“It’s being used against us,” he declared. “It chops the Township off at the knees.”

He added they have been fighting the site plan to put a facility like this in the Greenbelt, pointing out this action takes away the municipality’s tools in this fight.

Councillor Jane Underhill recalled the Township’s efforts to get a bump-up to a full environmental assessment was turned down my the Ministry of the Environment.

The justification, she said, was there would be a planning process that the Township could take part in.

“Everything that the government shoved down to us, by a stroke of a pen they have taken away,” Feehely replied.