Hmmm, McGuinty, and Energy Ministers Duguid, Smitherman, Bentley…
What’s spooking them?
Queen’s Park dingbats frightened?
Reply
Tag Archives: smitherman
Do you agree?
(Reprint from 2009)
The dire need to stop global warming with an aggressive renewable energy plan for Ontario outstrips potential damage to sensitive environmental areas, says Marion Fraser, a founding member of the Green Energy Act Alliance. The Sarnia Observer
Continue reading
Follow the Funding! **Must Watch**
Look who Dalton McGuinty has crawled into bed with
The McGuinty Liberals made a undertendered, ½ billion dollar sweetheart deal behind closed doors, against the wishes of his caucus with our tax money. Samsung has no experience in the wind industry, not even in Korea. The Auditor General needs to take a closer look at this.
Samsung rocked by bribery investigation Muttered accusations of bribery, stock manipulation, tax evasion and dirty tricks have always surrounded South Korea’s mighty chaebol. The inquiry follows allegations by one of Samsung’s own legal team that the company had created a 200 billion won slush fund used for bribing government officials.
Samsung chief indicted on tax evasion charge An extensive and embarrassing investigation of the most iconic industrialist in South Korea has ended with an indictment on tax evasion charges for Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung.
Good Riddance, Smitherman. You can have him, Toronto.
Smitherman Quits Ontario Cabinet
CTV Toronto
Some analysts believe that Smitherman’s announcement was hastened by a recent dust-up at Queen’s Park, in which Smitherman was confronted about his dealings with the Samsung Group.
Smitherman had been courting the South Korean industrial giant for a deal to build a multi-billion dollar wind turbine facility in the province.
However, McGuinty stalled the agreement amid concern that too much provincial cash would be used to subsidize the deal.
During one caucus meeting, Smitherman was reportedly attacked by his colleagues about the deal’s specifics. Continue reading
Smitherman dithers while cabinet fumes
ADAM RADWANSKI Globe and Mail 
“…there’s some suggestion that the risk he’s prepared to take – preferential access to valuable transmission capacity, and maybe an investment return above the going rate, to a foreign company with limited experience in developing wind power – is motivated by his eagerness to show quick returns on alternative energy investment before he leaves office.”
George Smitherman is arguably the most powerful minister in Canada’s largest provincial government. He is also a heavyweight contender to become the next mayor of Canada’s largest city.
It’s not a bad position to be in. But it’s increasingly obvious that Mr. Smitherman – who, in addition to being Ontario’s Deputy Premier, serves as its Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Renewal – can’t remain in it for much longer. Continue reading
McGuinty stalls plan after cabinet uproar
The Ontario government’s multi-billion-dollar wind turbine deal with South Korean industrial giant Samsung Group is in jeopardy after a power play in Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet, the Toronto Star has learned.
Sources say rival ministers opposed to Deputy Premier George Smitherman’s pet scheme, which they fear will mean “billions” of dollars in subsidies to Samsung, have convinced McGuinty to stall the landmark deal first reported in the Star on Sept. 27. Continue reading
Vote highlights turbine critics’ health concerns
MPP Phil McNeely, Hell-bent on Vandalizing Rural Ontario
Posted By Bill Henry Sun Times
Local wind farm opponents vowed yesterday to keep pushing for independent studies into the effects wind turbines have on people.
Ontario legislators rejected Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Murdoch’s call to halt industrial wind farm development until the province’s top doctor can assure the government turbines don’t harm people living nearby.
Ontario set to Swing Right
You shut your mouth, NIMBY! Don't ruin this for me.
Posted By MICHAEL DEN TANDT Calgary Sun
The eHealth boondoggle, on its own, is more than enough to split 416 in two years. Every citizen in every emergency waiting room with a sick child today knows that a billion health-care dollars were wasted on computer consultants over the past seven years. That’s all it will take.
If that weren’t enough, there’s wind power. It’s not an issue in the cities. But in rural Ontario, opposition to industrial wind power has reached a slow boil that will not go away. It will only build. McGuinty-Smitherman’s strange insistence on driving these projects forward despite widespread, credible reports that living near a big wind turbine is bad for your health, will crush the Liberals absolutely in the country. Even if they eventually relent and call for more study, which they likely will, the damage will have been done.
Dirty Little Secret – Amy Tang’s “Omission”
Owen Sound Sun Times
The front-page story headlined “Turbines part of green plan” (Sun Times, Oct.10/09), is a perfect example of how our provincial government is misleading the public with regard to the issue of wind turbines.
Amy Tang, identified as the spokesperson for Energy Minister George Smitherman, is quoted as saying “We have to remember why we entered into renewable energy in the first place, which was our commitment to get off coal.”
Unfortunately she neglected to explain just how wind turbines get us off coal. I suspect her omission was deliberate, because in reality there is no practical way that wind turbines can replace coal fired thermal units. Continue reading
In Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario, all I expect is a bigger hydro bill
By CONNIE WOODCOCK Toronto Sun
There’s a farmer in Northumberland County, east of Oshawa, who wants to build a house for his daughter on his farm, but he can’t because he’s on the heavily protected Oak Ridges Moraine.
But it’s OK to lease his land to a company that will put up multiple wind turbines and turn his property into a wind farm. And they’ll pay him five figures a year to do it. Continue reading
Canada’s worst government
Terence Corcoran, Financial Post
Every now and then a province falls into the hands of blundering politicians so inept that their government ends up deserving of the title “Canada’s Worst Government.” It’s a rare award. At any time somebody has to be the worst, but no award for routine bottom-of-the-barrel performance seems necessary. Occasionally, however, the metric of incompetence is so large and conspicuous it demands special recognition. The Liberal regime of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, now slipping into deep deficits that are likely to exceed $30-billion over two years and continue into the future, has hit the tipping point and triggered its candidacy as Canada’s Worst Government. Continue reading
Call for Public Inquiry on Liberal eHealth Scandal
QUEENS PARK – Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski today called for a public inquiry to resolve the many unanswered questions that remain about the serious, and potentially criminal, abuses of the taxpayer money that occurred with the McGuinty Liberal eHealth Scandal.
Yakabuski noted that the Auditor General lacked the mandate or the resources necessary to answer many of the most important unanswered questions about a scandal that saw hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars funneled to Liberal friendly consultants through untendered contracts and sweetheart deals. Continue reading
Smitherman has to go
Editor:
This is directed at the Ontario government.
Do Ontario and Toronto a favour, George, and retire from politics.
I am calling on Premier Dalton McGuinty to demand the resignation of George Smitherman from his position of Minister of Energy and Infrastructure and Deputy Premier.
Ontario families — men, women and children, have been forced to abandon their homes because of wind turbines.
This cannot be denied.
On Oct. 10: “While there may be unanswered health questions related to industrial wind turbines, there’s no doubt about health risks associated with coal burning power plants, Smitherman’s press secretary Amy Tang said.” Continue reading
Think eHealth was bad?
Beware of Dalton and George on ‘green’ energy
For Ontario to blow $1 billion over seven years not delivering on electronic health (eHealth) records, as Auditor General Jim McCarter documented last week, is frightening. But here’s something just as scary.
Everything that went wrong with eHealth can just as easily go wrong with Premier Dalton McGuinty’s similarly half-baked plan to make us a “renewable” energy giant.
Right down to the fact the same cabinet minister in charge when most of the damage was done at eHealth, is now in charge of renewable energy.
That’s not David Caplan, health minister for barely a year before the eHealth scandal broke, who McGuinty threw under the bus.
It’s George Smitherman, health minister from 2003 to 2008, when the problems at eHealth were exploding, who’s now in charge of the green energy file. Continue reading
Smitherman Still in Denial, Calls for Health Study Grow
Huron Kinloss Mayor, Mitch Twolan
Two recent health unit meetings, in Owen Sound and Walkerton, were dominated by people protesting industrial wind turbine development and listing health and other concerns.
Dr. Hazel Lynn, the Grey Bruce regional medical officer of health, supported Murdoch’s call this week, saying there are enough questions now about turbine health hazards to warrant an investigation. Continue reading
Owen Sound Sun Times: Good for Murdoch for raising his hand
Bill Murdoch, MPP
Bill Murdoch has raised his hand at Queen’s Park. His message: “Hang on folks, let’s rethink this wind power business.”
Murdoch wants a moratorium on further big wind power development projects until provincial health and environmental authorities can attest to their safety, for people and for livestock.
This comes late in the game. The Green Energy Act is law. Regulations on wind turbine setbacks have been set. Wind energy companies are buying up rights in Grey- Bruce.
For this wave of big-money development to grind to a halt now will require a significant expression of political will.
Yet that is precisely what is required. Continue reading
Windmills: Bigger Waste than eHealth
Tonight's Wind Efficency: 2%
Posted: September 30, 2009, National Post
Wind reduces CO2 emissions at a subsidy cost of about $124 per tonne — one of the most expensive plans in the world
By Michael Trebilcock
Ontarians take note. A detailed new Danish study shatters most of the myths that the Danish-based wind turbine industry has been propagating in Canada and around the world as to the virtues of wind power. The study, Wind Energy: The Case of Denmark by the Centre for Policy Studies in Copenhagen, strongly reinforces reservations that I have noted in previous op-eds in this newspaper. Continue reading
Quebec government cares more about residents than McGuinty government
Quebec Deputy Premier, Nathalie Normandeau
“Yes to wind development, but not … at any price” Q & A with Nathalie Normandeau, Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Resources And Wildlife
Marian Scott The Montreal Gazette
I can tell you, for our government, there is no question of imposing a project on a community that doesn’t want it. For us, the principle of social acceptability is a sacred principle. There is no question of ramming projects down people’s throats if they do not have wide acceptance in the community. Continue reading
George Smitherman Deathly Afraid of More Protests Today
Afraid of Wind Protests
Back in April of this year at the Grand Opening of the Enbridge Wind Farm in Kincardine, George Smitherman was met with a large group of very angry protestors.
Seems this time, he’s not taking any chances. A little birdie told us that today at 11 am (Thurs Sept 10), he will be doing a carefully staged photo-op and press conference for the grand opening of the environmental fiasco called the Wolfe Island Wind Project.
Attendance is by invitation only and only if he responds. Attendance is accessible only to the private club of proponent, company and government. Even the press require special clearance. The residents of Wolfe Island who must live under the shadow of these turbines are NOT invited.
Mr. Smitherman, how can you justify your policies when you must so carefully manipulate a simple Grand Opening?
Hush, hush now. We wouldn’t want any of the “public” to show up!
National Post: Northern Ontario Residents Critical of Process
Protestor at Enbridge Wind Facility, Kincardine
Drafty reception for wind farm development
Megan O’Toole, National Post Published: September 03, 2009
A group of Manitoulin Island residents is taking on a Toronto-based energy company, accusing Northland Power Inc. of fast-tracking a wind farm project without proper consultation.
The dispute is the latest sign of a groundswell of unease over wind power projects in the province have been highly critical of the effects of such development on local communities. Continue reading
Analysis of the GEA Regulations
Analysis of Proposed Content for the Renewable Energy Approval Regulation under the Environmental Protection Act
We are Victims of Wind – Don’t Let This Happen to You
Victims of the Ripley, Ontario Industrial Wind Facility
We suffer from:
House Vibration Electrical Pollution
Tightening in the Chest Ringing in the Ears
High Stress Cardiac Arrythmia
Acute Hypertension Sleep Deprivation
Depression Severe Financial Loss
Altered Living Conditions Abandoned by our government
24.3% Increase: McGuinty and Smitherman Have Clearly Pulled a Fast One
To voice your opinion email boardsec@oeb.gov.on.ca
Reference: EB-2009-0096
Deadline: September 16th 2009
(Ottawa, ON) – Energy Critic John Yakabuski (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP) said today that Dalton McGuinty and George Smitherman have clearly pulled a fast one on Ontario electricity customers. Yakabuski pointed out that the recent request by Hydro One for shocking rate increases is proof that Energy Minister Smitherman was not being honest when he repeatedly claimed that the “Green Energy Act” would only add 1% per year to your electricity bill.
“This is simply unacceptable. How can Dalton McGuinty and George Smitherman allow this to happen?” said Yakabuski. “Have they no regard for what people are going through these days? And worse yet, the McGuinty Liberals will rub salt into the wound when they add a further 8% to your bill with the implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax on July 1, 2010.” Continue reading
The Day Democracy Died in Ontario
The Community Press – Hastings County
How many Ontarians are aware that democracy died in Ontario on May 14 this year?
That is the date that Bill 150, the Ontario Green Energy and Green Economy Act 2009 received royal assent.
As of that day, property owners in Ontario lost their rights as municipalities lost their power to have any impact on green energy or green economy projects in their jurisdiction. In Part II, section 4 (2) of the act it states: Continue reading
Another Ontario Family Driven from their Home
Update to this story, See: Natural Resources Canada Eco-Bullies
So whatever happened to Barbara Lormand and Dennis Lormand? The picture shows it all. They have finally been driven from their home.
Read the Hansard transcript from Barbara Ashbee’s Testamony to the Green Energy Act Standing Committee. After pleading with Laurel Broten, Peter Tabuns, Carol Mitchell and others on the committee, Barbara and her husband Dennis have finally had to abandon their home. These same politicians continue to push for more wind development in populated areas of rural Ontario.
VACATED
OFCA: Stop the Turbines Until Health Study Conducted
By Hugo Rodrigues, SENTINEL-REVIEW
The Oxford County Federation of Agriculture is adding its voice to those calling for a freeze on wind-farm developments in this county. Read entire story here: oxfordreview.com
We are not children to be condescended to
The Sudbury Star By Ruth Farquhar, freelance writer based on Manitoulin Island.
Manitoulin Island
I wonder how many wind farms it will take to shut down one coal fired plant in Ontario?
Are legitimate concerns from the public being dismissed by an Ontario government that wants to be seen by the voter as being green?
After all one of their big campaign promises was to shut down the coal fired plants by 2007 and then they bumped it to 2014 and it doesn’t seem like they are any closer to shutting down even one plant. MPP George Smitherman has said, “Wind farms will help end coal use.” But do they? More and more people are starting to question how much wind generation is actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading
Call for Gerretsen’s Resignation
The following ad appeared in the Kingston Whig Standard July 4th, 2009:
Marysville, Wolfe Island Photo courtesy Brian Little
Which Community Will Be Next, Courtesy of John Gerretsen?
Marysville, Wolfe Island Photo courtesy Brian Little
Ontarians are suffering serious health problems because industrial wind turbines are placed too close to homes.
You are responsible for this disgraceful state of affairs as Minister of the Environment. How could this have happened Mr. Gerretsen? Continue reading
Huron County Federation of Agriculture: “We need better regulations to protect farm families.”
The Huron County Federation of Agriculture will be visiting municipalities throughout Huron County asking them to follow Huron East’s lead by passing interim control bylaws on commercial wind energy projects within their borders. Continue reading