Bring on the nuclear jobs

Clarington has officially been searching for an expansion of the Darlington facility for
years now - whether it was the ITER energy project or now with nuclear new build.

We've already got refurbishment of the existing reactors in the works and this should kick-start the new Courtice Energy Park.

Several local representatives made a strong delegation in favour of new build at the recent Darlington New Nuclear Power Plant Project Joint Review Panel held in Courtice March 21 to April 8.

Promotion of new build in Clarington is the smart thing to do - Clarington needs the local jobs and with potential new nuclear build in Ontario this municipality has the right mix to make it happen - an existing nuclear plant, political support and community support.

In a perfect world we would use almost no energy and get power from renewable resources. But given the reality of power needs in Ontario and right here in Durham that's not a serious prospect.

The recent disaster in Japan doesn't change this - we don't face a tsunami although the possiblity of a terrorist attack remains troubling - because OPG, which operates the Darlington facility, has been very clear about elevating security in the area. 

Kincardine Mayor Larry Kraemer, whose community hosts the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, pointed out at the hearings that no matter what energy creation source is selected there are pitfalls and advantages. The advantage of nuclear is a stable source of power and jobs - both of which we need.

At the end of the day Mayor Adrian Foster, Regional Councillors Willie Woo and Mary Novak, and Local Councillor Ron Hooper did what they needed to do - sell Clarington as the best place for new build in Ontario during the official Clarington delegation.

NOTE: Don't forget to do your part on Earth Day 2011 - there are a number of events going on including a tree-planting by the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority.

In my next blog I'll look at the 2010 Clarington local election financial statements posted on the Clarington website.

Host Community Agreement no longer matters in incineration battle

Clarington council heard from environmental consultant Steven Rowe on Monday, March 7 - who was hired on to look at the impact of the Host Community Agreement on provincial approval of the proposed Clarington facility - and you can be forgiven if you haven't really heard anything since.

That's because it seems to be the final nail in the anti-incinerator coffin.

Even though the majority of residents and the majority of councillors are opposed to the incineration option - the number of at-bats is dwindling.

The whole point of looking at the Host Community Agreement was never to put pressure on the province. As Rowe made perfectly clear it probably matters not one fig to the Ministry of Environment whether there is a HCA or not. The minister typically decides environmental assessments based on the merits of the area being considered.

And with a nuclear plant to the east and St. Mary's Cement east of that nobody can seriously argue that the area is a pristine natural oasis.

The problem is that council's earlier move - which included a perceived threat to sue over the HCA - was met with overwhelming fire from Durham Region that wilted Clarington council's will. The Region called out Clarington and it turns out we had a poor hand.

If that was the best our councillors could come up with - it wasn't much.

The Region - and more importantly the current Regional Councillors on whom so many hopes were pinned - may now feel that the HCA is a done deal and Regional Councillors may now have lost their appetite to reopen the business case.

So the ill-fated legal manoever may have cost Clarington the fight.

Now some will say 'we had to do something!' But as the saying goes - when you're in a hole you have to stop digging and look for a ladder.

Unfortunately we kept digging rather than proposing a plan with some legs. And if anyone thinks for a moment the Region's lawyers were bluffing they should maybe put down the dice and remember they are playing with taxpayer dollars here - tens of millions of them.

So is the incinerator now a done deal?

It's a step closer to shovels in the ground - but can still be fought primarily on economic grounds as costs rise. The majority of Clarington's local and regional councillors remain opposed to the incinerator but the battle now rests with the Regional Councillors, outside of Clarington, who can re-open the business case.
Failing that it now looks like all that remains for Clarington Councillors is form a watchdog committee and observe matters from the sidelines.

But what we really need to see is people becoming the face of the movement - like at the March 5 protest in Courtice. Failing that then opposition will likely crumble.

Federal note: Clarington is now in the middle of a federal election - mark May 2 on your calendar and do your duty as a Canadian and vote.

In my next blog post I'm going to look at the Darlington New Nuclear Power Plant Project Joint Review Panel held in Courtice March 21 to April 8.

It's local council report card time!

                                                                                                            PODCAST

Our elected local council is now four months into their first year so I thought I would issue first trimester report cards.

I decided to go with four criteria - leadership (do they have a plan and do classmates value their opinion), teamwork (do they play nice with their collegues), effectiveness (did they get the job done) and communication (do they talk to the residents that elected them as well as staff department heads).

I think this is a good balance with which to grade our studious class.

The point of this exercise, of course, is to stimulate debate and discussion about what makes a good local representative and to try and set some objective criteria with which to gauge their performance. It's not to throw stones at someone because we don't particularly like their political stance nor should it be taken as a 'rah-rah' cheerleader.

Feel free to come up with your own criteria and ratings and post them below - I'd love to see them.

I want to begin by pointing out what I see as four factions developing on council:

Veteran Guard - Mayor Adrian Foster, Ward 1 & 2 Regional Councillor Mary Novak, Ward 3 & 4 Councillor Willie Woo and Ward 2 Local Councillor Ron Hooper are experienced at politics and three of the four are our regional representatives.

The Firm - Ward 1 Local Councillor Joe Neal and Ward 3 Local Councillor Corinna Traill - two representatives with a legal background. If there is an opposition party on council this is it. They tend to vote together but on contested motions are usually strongly outgunned by the Veteran Guard.

New Faces - We have Ward 4 Local Councillor Wendy Partner joined by Ward 1 Local Councillor Joe Neal and Ward 3 Local Councillor Corinna Traill. They are the fresh faces on council and many residents are looking to them to shake things up.

The Woman's Caucus - In the 2010 election the number of women on council tripled from one to three. Still not a majority but there is perhaps an opportunity to see a different approach to local issues.

And now the marks:

Mayor - Mayor Adrian Foster gets bonus marks for conducting the first survey of residents to actually see what their priorities are for the strategic review. There was even a time extension to allow more people to participate. He loses some marks, however, for his embroiled conflicts with The Firm - even if it does take two to tango he needs to find a way to lead the dance. We would have expected to see a better performance from Foster given his stellar performance as a local councillor and his failure - thus far - to halt the incinerator is troubling to many. GRADE: B-

Regional Councillor Wards 1 & 2 - Mary Novak is the most experienced politician on council and has a comprehensive understanding of the issues that matter to residents and the businesses of the muncipality. She could do a better job reaching out to opponents but overall Novak demonstrates that experience matters. A team player and effective representative she needs to work on her communication skills to really hit her full potential. GRADE: A-

Regional Councillor Ward 3 & 4 - Willie Woo has such an affable demeanor that it's almost impossible not to like him. He seems to be taking a bit of time settling in to his new role as regional representative and doesn't often take the leadership role he is capable of. But he's a strong team player and gets all his ducks in a row ahead of any vote. GRADE: B

Local councillor Ward 1 - Joe Neal has political experience but hasn't been able to convert that into building a winning team yet. As half of The Firm he has been thwarted in his legal attempts to stop the incinerator. Not everything has to boil down to a legal showdown or be sent out for expensive consultants - he should perhaps branch away from his signature move 'call in the lawyers' and look at alternative tactics. But his success in having delegation time increased and vigorous support of funds for his ward shows passion and promise. GRADE: A-

Local councillor Ward 2 - Ron Hooper is a respected business owner in his Ward, knows his constituents and fights for their best interests. He's not at all afraid to change course if that's the smart thing to do. But we need to see more vision from Hooper because he has the goodwill and alliances to get things done. GRADE: B-

Local Councillor Ward 3 - Corinna Traill is exactly what people want from their politicians - she's strong, forceful, creative and has a great online presence through her social media connections. But it has become increasingly obvious that she has not built any alliances outside The Firm. The only thing preventing her from scoring higher is her lack of success in actually producing winning results that are not later rescinded. GRADE: B-

Local Councillor Ward 4 - If you go to council and watch Wendy Partner she doesn't talk much. That's a good thing because she is busy listening. Partner has demonstrated glimpses of a quick wit and a clear grasp of the issues and as the months go on her confidence is visibly increasing. She has the opportunity to bridge the many gaps between various factions on council and could end up being a dealmaker. GRADE: B

Council as a whole - Council is clearly not 'working together' and part of the problem is that everyone has to want to work together. The former 4-3 flip-flopping council has been replaced by the 5-2 flip-floppers. This council is somehow much less than the sum of it's parts. However, it has the right mix to come to good decisions for the people of Clarington if it starts focusing on the right issues and get them dealt with. GRADE: C

In my next blog I'm going to take a look at the fallout from the Clarington budget.

Protons & Electrons #002

Welcome to Protons & Electrons!                    PODCAST

I hope you will enjoy this second post to Protons & Electrons!

In the sidebar you'll find a way to follow the blog and you can bookmark this page to make it fast and easy to navigate back. I want to hear from you so feel free to click the comment button below and participate.

You'll also notice that I've added a button at the top of each blog post that links to a podcast of each episode. You can now download and listen to each post if you wish. It give you more options for accessing Protons & Electrons.

"Incineration and more time"

There were a couple of major events at the Clarington council meeting held Jan. 17 in the council chambers.

For those of us that stuck it out until about 11:30pm it was quite a show.

Our elected representatives earlier went in camera for a long discussion about a motion concerning the incinerator - which of course means the public doesn't have access to exactly what the bone of contention was.

Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster and Ward 1 & 2 Regional Respresentative Mary Novak eventually voted against the motion proposed by Ward 1 Councillor Joe Neal. Both seem to feel the motion could result in some significant risk to Clarington concerning the incinerator and the host community agreement.

The motion passed - residents will have to wait a few more weeks to see what the result will be but among other things the motion gives Durham Region until Feb. 14 to weigh in on the matter.

Plus residents once again have 10 minutes to make their case in a delegation.

Clarington resident Jim Richards made a strong case during a delegation speech where he pointed out that the five minute rule only served to have more people sign up to speak because they felt not enough information was making it through to their elected representatives.

Council voted in favour of doubling the amount of time delegations have to speak - which brings time limits back to pre-former Clarington mayor Jim Abernethy levels. Ward 1 councillor Joe Neal brought forward the motion and I think he even used the same argument I did during the 2010 election - namely, if people make the effort to come down to the town hall they should be given a fair amount of time to talk.

We'll see in the coming months how much later council meetings go with the revival of the old time limit.

In my next blog post I will discuss issues arising out of the Jan. 31 Clarington council meeting.