Oakville Ontario News, Articles and Reviews

Oakville Mayor Rob Burton is fine with the idea of Nanticoke taking the proposed power plant that is being pushed forward by the Ontario Power Association.

The Toronto Star reported last week that the Mayor of Haldimand Marie Trainer would be willing to take on a natural gas power plant built by TransCanada in their community.

The Town of Oakville has been in a disagreement with the Ontario Power Authority(OPA) and their plan to build a power plant near Royal Windsor Drive and Ford Drive. The 900 mega-watt plant is between a road and a railroad track – raising safety and air quality concerns.

Mayor Burton suggested that the plan presented doesn’t provide adequate access to the property if a fire or explosion were to occur. He described the plan presented by TransCanada and the OPA as irresponsible.

“I believe power plants need to be safe and clean, this isn’t either one. There may very well be a need to have power plants in communities as the OPA has claimed, but they haven’t made that case, they’ve given no proof,” Mayor Burton said.

“It’s true because they say so, that’s not the level of responsibility and ethics that I expect from the government. It’s not the level of responsibility and ethics of the Town of Oakville.”

The proposed site adjacent to the Ford plant sits close to schools and residential homes with less than a 1 km buffer. While Mayor Haldimand said their community in Nanticoke has a 3 km buffer zone.

“This province has been in denial about environmental protection as long as I’ve been paying attention to the environment. We have no standards.”

Mayor Burton made reference to another company called Competitive Power Ventures that has proposed a power plant in the Nanticoke area that would be 29 per cent cleaner than the one proposed by TransCanada. Mayor Burton suggested that any claim that TransCanada makes stating that they are building a “greener” power plant is false.

The OPA has since appealed the extension of the Town’s interim control by-law, which is preventing the construction of the power plant.

“We are hard at work on our planning rules to govern power plants. We are only allowed to use the interim control by-law to get time and space to create proper rules for a land use we weren’t anticipating,” Mayor Burton said.

“None of this says that there can’t be a power plant in Oakville. But all of it says, where there will be a plant, it will be safe and it will be clean.”