Mississauga News, March 20th 2008
By: Radhika Panjwani
The only way to get Queen’s Park to back-off from installing a gas-fired power plant in Mississauga is for the City to embrace energy efficient and renewable options, a former head of Greenpeace told the community.
Peter Tabuns, MPP Toronto-Danforth and former head of Greenpeace, was at the Cawthra Community Centre tonight to speak to residents about strategies they can employ to stop the installation of a gas-fired power plant in their community. The event was hosted by the Mississauga South NDP.
Tabuns told the group if they want to fight against gas-fired power plants, they have to do the research that will show there are, in fact, alternatives.
He urged the residents to call upon the City to utilize its resources to come up with an alternate options that will seek to reduce the overall energy consumption.
“Your City Council has planners, researchers and the resources – ask them to look at options for renewable energy and come up with a plan,” Tabuns said.
Tabuns, who’s also the environment critic for NDP, cautioned the group that even though the Sithe Plant proposal for a 800 mega watt gas-fired power plant to be built at Winston Churchill Blvd and Royal Windsor is awaiting approval from Ontario Power Authority (OPA), and despite the assurances from Energy Minister Gerry Phillips that the electricity requirements for the southwest GTA have been reassessed and reduced, the issue may be far from over.
He told the group there are multiple plans in play in case of approvals involving power plants and he has seen how a seemingly stalled project can be kick-started and rolling within weeks.
“This issue (the possibility of a gas-fired plant in Mississauga)is not off the table,” Tabuns said.
Tabuns suggested some measures to help in reduce the energy consumption, including enforcing stringent building codes that increase insulation standards, investing in large scale energy retrofits and use of renewable resources such as wind, solar and others.
Roy Willis, a Mississauga-South resident and former mayoral candidate who was at the meeting, said he hoped the Conservatives, Liberals and the NDP are, “singing from the same page in the hymn book”. He accused the government of making up its mind on the issue, but said it was heartening that the Council opposes the building of a power plant.
“But the municipal governments don’t have the power, it is provincial government that has the power,” Willis said. “But we have four levels of government here in Mississauga -federal, provincial, regional and Hazel McCallion. Hazel McCallion is on public record for supporting gas plants here.”
