MP, MPP, and Council Unite to Take Action Against Power Plant

October 21, 2009 - For Immediate Release
At a special meeting of Council last night, Oakville's provincial, federal and regional representatives pledged their support for Oakville Town Council by offering their assistance to the town in its fight against the Province's decision to locate a power plant in Oakville. Council also heard from legal counsel that the town needed to focus its attention on evidence-based approaches to the proposed power plant.

"This Council is rigorously challenging the province's decision to put a power plant less than 400 metres from schools and homes in our community," Mayor Rob Burton said. "We stand together with our residents, MP Terence Young, MPP Kevin Flynn and Regional Chair Gary Carr, and speak with one voice: we do not support a plant that lowers our air quality and adversely affects our community."

During the meeting, which was called to hear Council's options on how to respond to the provincial decision to locate a 900 megawatt gas-fired power plant on Ford-owned lands at 1500 Royal Windsor Drive, Council heard strong messages of support from Oakville MP Terence Young and MPP Kevin Flynn. Regional Chair Gary Carr also pledged the support of regional staff and regional air quality monitoring systems to support the town's efforts to protect the health and safety of the community and the quality of the air we breathe.

Council unanimously passed the recommendations in the report from town staff, including calling on the province to require a full environmental assessment of the proposed site of the power plant and to introduce provincial regulations on certain air emissions, known as PM2.5.

"PM2.5 has already been identified as a health hazard by the World Health Organization, the United States government and our own federal government," Mayor Burton said. "It is unacceptable for the province to approve a power plant that will emit PM2.5 without even having defined safe levels."

Other recommendations approved by Council call on the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to provide the town with detailed results of the evaluation process and rating assessment of each proponent, and TransCanada Energy to release all of its documents and studies as well as environmental impact reports related to its proposal, including data relating to air quality, human health, ecological health, environment and emission controls.

"Town staff and our legal advisors have given us strong advice that we must focus our fight on facts and evidence," Mayor Burton noted. "We need to see all the documentation related to the proposed power plant so that we can respond in kind."

Council also resolved to ask Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn, Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh and Mississauga-South MPP Charles Sousa to ensure the Minister of the Environment elevates the required project environmental review to a full Individual Environmental Assessment, which would require more rigorous study of the site and potential impacts of the power plant.

"The Environmental Screening Process undertaken by TransCanada is wholly inadequate for such a large-scale project so close to thousands of homes," Mayor Burton said. "Council, together with our residents and our partners at all levels of government, is demanding a thorough environmental assessment that includes substantive standards and invites and considers input from the community that will be affected."

Council also asked the Halton Region Health Department to continue to provide its input on the proposed plant's impacts on human health and air quality throughout the approval process.

Earlier this year, Council passed an Interim Control By-Law and official plan amendment to ensure the necessary planning work and study could take place before any power plant over a 10 megawatt capacity could be constructed in Oakville. Ford and TransCanada appealed this by-law and official plan amendment to the Ontario Municipal Board, and a decision is pending following a hearing that ended on Tuesday.

-30-

For more information:
Jane Courtemanche
Director, Strategy, Policy and Communications
Town of Oakville
905-845-6601 ext. 3038
jcourtemanche@oakville.ca

 Sign up for the town's RSS feeds to get information delivered right to your desktop.