Further to my earlier post Liberal Brad Duguid should explain his gas-plant closure lies...
... there was this great story in the Nov.2, 2012 National Post "Dalton McGuinty, power puppeteer", written by Parker Gallant, detailing how Ontario Liberal premier McGuinty's office and McGuinty's strategists, were 'invested in hiding the mess' of their gas-plant closures:
" ...As I read the documents so far, including board briefings and emails among the many players, it’s the Liberal strategists attached to the Premier’s Office and Ministry offices who are invested in hiding the mess the gas plants created. As energy consultant Tom Adams suggests in his review of the documents, the evidence suggests the total cost of plant cancellations is likely greater than $1.3-billion, the burden to be borne by electricity consumers. The documents show that McGuinty strategists managed the gas files to benefit the Liberal party rather than taxpayers and ratepayers. Once the plants were cancelled, in October 2010 and September 2011, the top-down political influence is very noticeable. Post-cancellation negotiations to cover the costs of breaking contracts fell to Liberal party officials who tried to cover up the mess, not to energy experts.
One early sign of the Premier’s Office control came early, in November 2010, a month after the government announced it would cancel the $1.2-billion contract to TransCanada Energy (TCE) to build the 900-megawatt Oakville plant. One of the 56,000 documents is a presentation made to the board of directors of the Ontario Power Authority (OPA), the agency that runs the provincial power system under government oversight. One slide in the presentation captures the essence of the issues:
- Premier’s Office staff advised TCE that Ontario has other needs for gas-fired generation
- OPA staff [is] advised that Province would be pleased if the following or a combination of the following criteria were achieved:
- Negotiated solution does not exceed $1.2 B
- No cheque issued to TCE
- Good location for replacement facility (i.e. rural and meets setback requirements of Bill 8)
- Per unit cost close to that of similar generation technology…”
Among the strategists on behalf of the government was David Livingston, then the CEO of Infrastructure Ontario. Mr. Livingston, now the premier’s chief of staff, used Infrastructure Ontario staff to put together “term sheets” that would be used in negotiations with TCE. One option involved transferring part ownership in another gas plant, Portlands, to TCE as compensation for loss of Oakville. The offer appears to have been made without consulting the owner of the asset, Ontario Power Generation. TCE rejected the idea. It also rejected the possibility of building a 1,000-MW gas plant at the Lambton, Nanticoke or Thunder Bay coal facilities, also owned by Ontario Power Generation.
These offers were obviously meant to avoid a lawsuit or the possibility of having to cut a cheque from the provincial treasury... "
{related update - fast forward to Dec.17, 2015, where the name of McGuinty's Liberal chief of staff, David Livingston, pops up in this Globe and Mail report:
"Two former top Ontario political staffers have been criminally charged with orchestrating a plan to delete government e-mails and other documents that could have shed light on the billion-dollar cancellation of two gas-fired power plants – a long-running scandal that continues to dog the governing provincial Liberal Party."}
Looking at Parker Gallant's above story, it is becoming clear that McGuinty's manipulative Liberals, in October of 2010, were already pulling strings behind the scenes in regards to their cancelled Oakville plant: the secretive Liberals insisted "no cheque" be issued to TCE for the McGuinty-caused Oakville cancellation; and, the Liberals were planning to swap the Oakville site for another site in Bath, Ont.
Now: the funny thing is, that Brad Duguid, McGuinty's Energy Minister at the time of the Oakville-plant cancellation, was reported in this Oct.7, 2010 Toronto Star story (written by Rob Ferguson, Robert Benzie and Tanya Talaga) unmistakably saying that the Oakville plant was NOT going to be rebuilt anywhere in Ontario!!
Duguid also said that the electrical power from the cancelled Oakville plant was NOT needed in the province!!
Read that again, if you still don't believe what the Liberal liar Duguid said:
- (1): that the Oakville plant was NOT going to be rebuilt
and
- (2): that the power which the Oakvile plant would have provided for years into the future, was not needed.
These Liberal lies are important to remember.
Yet now we see from Gallant's story, that behind the scenes, McGuinty's Liberal liars were going ahead to replace the cancelled Oakville gas plant! Which then also begs the question: what were they going to do with the power from this 'new' Bath plant (power which Duguid claimed Ontario didn't need !) - sell it to the Americans for pennies on the dollar?!
Furthermore, in this Oct.5, 2012 CBC story, Duguid clearly stated:
"I was minister at the time, I was engaged in the Oakville decision from the beginning and throughout, fully engaged".
If this is true (...and who knows, since so much of what Duguid spouts is deceptive horseshit...) then Duguid, by his own admission, knew about the secretive 'no cheque to TCE' ploy, and, he was directly involved in setting up the 'Bath-for-Oakville' / 'we'll 'give' you this-in-lieu-of-that" bait-and-switch scheme - while telling us the opposite!
Duguidd himself has made the case that he was outright lying about the whole mess.
And no pesky paper trail of cheques, either - what a perfect display of how Jim Bradley's slimebag Liberals operate!!!
Also, note how the Oct.5 2012 CBC story touts Duguid as being oh-so-eager to appear before the Queen's Park legislative inquiry into the Grit Gas-Plant Scandal - so: how'd that go, you may ask?! Well, conveniently enough, Duguid and his Liberals CANCELLED the inquiry by proroguing and CLOSING down Queen's Park!
What manipulative slimeballs!!
The Oct.5, 2012 CBC story reported Brad Duguid saying:
"One of the reasons I'm looking forward to testifying is it'll give me an opportunity to, in a very detailed manner, talk about the decision that was made to cancel the Oakville gas plant," Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid told reporters.
Duguid was energy minister when the Liberals cancelled a gas-fired generating station in Oakville in 2010, and when they halted construction on a Mississauga gas-fired plant plant two weeks before last year's election, helping save Liberal seats in the area.``
Sure, sure, Brad... 'one the reasons' - well, let's face it, the main reason - why McGuinty quit, ran away and closed down Queen's Park, is so that Liberals like you didn't testify!!
Why isn't anyone asking Brad Duguid to explain his lies?! No wonder this Liberal hack coyly didn't want to run for Liberal leader!
{By the way, let us not forget the revelations made in this July 19, 2012 CBC report: "The Liberal campaign decided to halt construction of a power plant in Mississauga days before last fall's election when they were behind in the polls, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan admitted Thursday."
That's right: Liberal Duncan admitted it was a Liberal CAMPAIGN decision, NOT a government decision.}
In other words, Jim Bradley's Ontario Liberals were using tax-payer money to influence an election.
Why aren't the Toronto Star reporters who compiled the original Oct.7, 2010 Star story - Rob Ferguson, Robert Benzie and Tanya Talaga - not updating it now, specifically in relation to what has happened in the last month?!
For cryin' out loud: was Duguid lying to us then, or is he lying now?
Was anything this Liberal clown's government said actually true? Duguid is up to his ass in green Grit energy deceptions, all traceable to Liberal Jim 'Climate-Doom' Bradley's years of GreenFear-mongering.
The Ontario Legislature's inquiry into the Liberal gas-plant scandal was 'supposed' to start on Oct.24, 2012 - but it looks like this entire 'inquiry' was a pre-ordained deception, set up to fail; a diversion, a deflection, from the start, never meant to actually take place.
McGuinty's Liberals, deathly afraid of what would be revealed, aborted justice, prorogued the house at Queen's Park on Oct.15, and ran away like the rats they are.
*
Let's travel into the future, to Oct.16, 2017, and read a Toronto Star story (headlined "Top McGuinty aide dismissed concerns about lack of gas plant documents") written by Rob Ferguson.
The aide referred to was none other than David Livingston (who was mentioned earlier in this post in Parker Gallant's article) and who, by 2017, was on criminal trial in regards to what the Liberals did in the gas plant scandal.
(update: on a late Friday night news-dump, Jan.19, 2018, David Livingston was found guilty for his part in the Liberal gas plant scandal. The real criminals - the scumbag Ontario Liberals - have gotten away scot-free!!
You see: the aide did it!! Yep: that mastermind aide cooked this up ALL BY HIMSELF!! McGuinty, Duguid and the rest of Ontario's Libranos were laughing their butts off at Ontario's gullible sucker taxpayers!! )
Note that this Oct.16, 2017 Toronto Star story was written by the same Rob Ferguson who 7 years earlier, had co-written the Oct.7, 2010 Toronto Star story which I had cited earlier in this post!!!!
Ferguson 7 years ago reported Brad Duguid saying (...we now see Duguid was lying...) that the gas plant in Oakville was being cancelled 'because Ontario didn't need the power'!!
Duguid also said (...lied...) that the gas plant was 'not going to be built anywhere else in Ontario', either. (Yet, we now know that both the Oakville and the Mississauga plants were built elsewhere!)
So it is quite interesting now to read Rob Ferguson's Oct 16, 2017 report, seven years later, where Ferguson now writes that:"McGuinty has previously said the two plants were scrapped because they were located too close to residential areas". Well, well, well... how about THAT little nugget, eh???! WOW!!
So, isn't it quite strange that the Toronto Star reporter Rob Ferguson now, in 2017, fails to mention what Liberal hack Energy Minister Brad Duguid had said 7 years ago, what Rob Ferguson himself had reported: the liar Duguid had said that Ontario didn't need the power, and, said that the plant wasn't going to be rebuilt.
In 2010, Rob Ferguson DID NOT report Duguid saying anything about the plants 'being too close to residential areas'!!! McGuinty's own energy minister, the liar Brad Duguid, said f*ck-all about these plants 'being too close to residential areas'!! Liberal Liar Duguid had made up a different lie than his Liberal lying boss McGuinty did!
And furthermore: the location of these plants had all been planned and approved under the Liberal government! McGuinty's Liberals and local planning officials developed and knew about these projects to build gas plants; the plans had been scrutinized and tendered - - - so, how on earth - after all this Liberal planning - could they suddenly discover at the last moment - right at election time! - that oh.... um... there are houses nearby, so we better cancel it all!!!
They all knew ahead of time that McGuinty's Liberals were planning a gas fired energy facility to be built at the chosen locations!!!
This was no "surprise"!! This wasn't done in a vacuum!
Residential housing concerns were already known at the time of these gas plants' approval, and should have been addressed then - or, were they NOT addressed?!
Didn't McGuinty's Liberals do their due planning diligence PRIOR to approving their own gas plants??? Didn't the local municipalities participate in the planning process??!
Hmmmm! Ferguson doesn't really analyze that!! Might look bad for the Liberals, no?!
Reading Ferguson's report, you'd now think that the Liberals and the local planning boards approved these gas plants IN SECRET!! What are ya saying, Ferguson?! Are you trying to create a new (phony) rehabilitative narrative that some one else - not the Liberals - created this mess?!!
McGuinty's Liberals CREATED, PLANNED and APPROVED these gas plants.
McGuinty later blaming 'nearby housing' for cancelling HIS OWN projects is an admission of HIS LIBERAL GOVERNMENT'S DIRECT NEGLIGENCE.
The concerns regarding any existing or future residential housing nearby, should have ALREADY been thoroughly addressed BEFORE the gas plant sites were given final approval!
If new housing was subsequently built AFTER the gas plant sites were approved, then this CANNOT be claimed to be "a surprise" to McGuinty, either.
Any nearby new housing developers and their clients would have CLEARLY known that they were buying or building upon lands near an ALREADY APPROVED future gas plant development.
So, this also, should not be used as an excuse.
Whether is was existing nearby housing, or future nearby housing, this issue could NOT have been 'a surprise' to McGuinty, at ANY POINT - neither at the planning stage, nor at the approval stage, nor at the cancel-at-the-last-minute-after-construction-has-already-begun stage!
McGuinty was just LYING and covering up his monumental Liberal negligence.
Ferguson's refusal to delve into the planning process here is sad, especially in light of the fact that Ferguson was reporting McGuinty's claim that 'nearby housing' was the reason the plants were cancelled.
Ferguson refused to examine this planning link, to examine the Liberals' actions PRIOR to choosing the gas plant sites and obtaining the necessary APPROVALS; as well as examining the related actions of the local approval bodies.
Ferguson chose to simply take McGuinty's word - instead of examining if McGuinty's given reason for his gas plant fiasco (which cost Ontarians hundreds of millions of dollars) that 'nearby housing' created this expensive mess, was valid!
Funny: imagine a Conservative being let off the hook like that!
Yep: Ole McGuinty NEVER lies!!!
Why does this Toronto Star reporter, Rob Ferguson, fail to mention what McGuinty's own energy minister had said in the past, and just whitewash it away, and cover it up now?
The Ontario Lying Liberals were making things up as they went along, and already in 2010 their stories and excuses weren't adding up.
*
So, isn't it quite strange that the Toronto Star reporter Rob Ferguson now, in 2017, fails to mention what Liberal hack Energy Minister Brad Duguid had said 7 years ago, what Rob Ferguson himself had reported: the liar Duguid had said that Ontario didn't need the power, and, said that the plant wasn't going to be rebuilt.
In 2010, Rob Ferguson DID NOT report Duguid saying anything about the plants 'being too close to residential areas'!!! McGuinty's own energy minister, the liar Brad Duguid, said f*ck-all about these plants 'being too close to residential areas'!! Liberal Liar Duguid had made up a different lie than his Liberal lying boss McGuinty did!
And furthermore: the location of these plants had all been planned and approved under the Liberal government! McGuinty's Liberals and local planning officials developed and knew about these projects to build gas plants; the plans had been scrutinized and tendered - - - so, how on earth - after all this Liberal planning - could they suddenly discover at the last moment - right at election time! - that oh.... um... there are houses nearby, so we better cancel it all!!!
They all knew ahead of time that McGuinty's Liberals were planning a gas fired energy facility to be built at the chosen locations!!!
This was no "surprise"!! This wasn't done in a vacuum!
Residential housing concerns were already known at the time of these gas plants' approval, and should have been addressed then - or, were they NOT addressed?!
Didn't McGuinty's Liberals do their due planning diligence PRIOR to approving their own gas plants??? Didn't the local municipalities participate in the planning process??!
Hmmmm! Ferguson doesn't really analyze that!! Might look bad for the Liberals, no?!
Reading Ferguson's report, you'd now think that the Liberals and the local planning boards approved these gas plants IN SECRET!! What are ya saying, Ferguson?! Are you trying to create a new (phony) rehabilitative narrative that some one else - not the Liberals - created this mess?!!
McGuinty's Liberals CREATED, PLANNED and APPROVED these gas plants.
McGuinty later blaming 'nearby housing' for cancelling HIS OWN projects is an admission of HIS LIBERAL GOVERNMENT'S DIRECT NEGLIGENCE.
The concerns regarding any existing or future residential housing nearby, should have ALREADY been thoroughly addressed BEFORE the gas plant sites were given final approval!
If new housing was subsequently built AFTER the gas plant sites were approved, then this CANNOT be claimed to be "a surprise" to McGuinty, either.
Any nearby new housing developers and their clients would have CLEARLY known that they were buying or building upon lands near an ALREADY APPROVED future gas plant development.
So, this also, should not be used as an excuse.
Whether is was existing nearby housing, or future nearby housing, this issue could NOT have been 'a surprise' to McGuinty, at ANY POINT - neither at the planning stage, nor at the approval stage, nor at the cancel-at-the-last-minute-after-construction-has-already-begun stage!
McGuinty was just LYING and covering up his monumental Liberal negligence.
Ferguson's refusal to delve into the planning process here is sad, especially in light of the fact that Ferguson was reporting McGuinty's claim that 'nearby housing' was the reason the plants were cancelled.
Ferguson refused to examine this planning link, to examine the Liberals' actions PRIOR to choosing the gas plant sites and obtaining the necessary APPROVALS; as well as examining the related actions of the local approval bodies.
Ferguson chose to simply take McGuinty's word - instead of examining if McGuinty's given reason for his gas plant fiasco (which cost Ontarians hundreds of millions of dollars) that 'nearby housing' created this expensive mess, was valid!
Funny: imagine a Conservative being let off the hook like that!
Yep: Ole McGuinty NEVER lies!!!
Why does this Toronto Star reporter, Rob Ferguson, fail to mention what McGuinty's own energy minister had said in the past, and just whitewash it away, and cover it up now?
The Ontario Lying Liberals were making things up as they went along, and already in 2010 their stories and excuses weren't adding up.
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