NIMBY

NIMBY. Not in my back yard is heard commonly in every town across the country. It was part of the mandate of the Liberal party in the last provincial election to move Ontario residents away from coal. The alternatives were wind, solar, hydro and nuclear power.
The government of Ontario has made a commitment to the voters of the province that new electrical power generation would come from green sources. The province has provided carrots to companies that are using natural gas, wind and solar energy to create power to make Ontario a green province.
We all want the benefits of electricity, but not necessarily if it bothers our sight lines, or covers fields, or blocks streams, or has the potential for a massive accident.
Most recently, the Liberal sitting MPP in Oakville with community support was able to block the construction of a gas-powered power plant. The 975 megawatt plant to replace coal fired powered plants was deemed too close to residents in Oakville where it was to be built.
In Mississauga a 280 megawatt gas fired power plant is picking up similar opposition. The community is worried about the safety of such a facility.
One megawatt will provide electricity for about 1,000 households.
Both cities are growing at fast rates and the power will be necessary to serve the new neighborhoods. It will be necessary to serve the explosion of glass condominium homes going up across the south end of Toronto.
Last fall, the McGinty government cancelled off shore windmills in the middle of Lake Ontario because the citizens of Scarborough were worried that they would spoil the view from the Scarborough bluffs.
In Thunder Bay, a continuing struggle is taking place with locating windmills on the Norwesters. There appears to be considerable opposition to this form of renewable energy.
Even some proposals for new hydro-electric power in the province are being objected to.
Yet in Dorion, less than 80 km away, a wind farm is growing. Twenty-eight towers will be raised by the end of summer. No one has raised a fuss over the turbines on the north shore of Lake Superior.
Closer to home, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society are opposing the development of the hydro-electric development proposed for the Namakan River. Lac La Croix First Nation had proposed the development to help solve economic issues with their community.
You don’t hear Ontario residents offering to give up their air conditioners in the summer. You don’t see Ontario residents putting out fewer Christmas lights in the winter. We would not tolerate local governments turning off streetlights in our communities to save energy. We would not consider putting a moratorium building new homes in the Golden Horseshoe and encouraging the development of industry and home construction where surpluses of power exist across the north of Ontario.
In the coming election, it can be predicted that all three political parties will lose their backbone to small vocal groups and put a moratorium on power development close to urban centres. They will say that they are listening to voters and acting in their best interests.
They will be telling the voters that NIMBY will remain alive and well. Power development will not take place in locations close to urban clusters. As the various parties seek to pacify the voters where new green electricity is proposed to be developed, those living in close proximity to the big coal fired power generating stations will see those facilities lives extended.
And the potential harm to the environment will continue.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher