By Ray Rivers

July 10th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

If there is anything certain in this very troubled world we live in, it’s that clean electricity is the future. Eventually it will replace every aspect of our lives that were once dominated by fossil fuels. And yet the history of electricity is relatively brief and the lessons not universally accepted.

Niagara Falls holds a special place for Canadians. It is the most popular tourist spot in the country, bringing in over 12 million tourists who spend more than $2 billion a year. And while there are the casinos and the tacky amusement arcade, it is the magnificent 167 foot high waterfall that tourists come to see.

This year the Niagara Parks Commission added an attraction, hoping to lure a thousand visitors a day. They opened up the 2200 foot water spillway tunnel in the historic power plant which takes visitors near the base of the falls. It is a view rivalling that of the ‘maid of the mist’ boats. Commissioned in 1906 the hydro power plant is now a museum and loaded with educational information about the role hydro electricity has played since its inception.

Not all water power projects are alike. The James Bay hydro project in Northern Quebec, poised to become the largest in the world, couldn’t be more different. Development of the Hydro Quebec project required flooding 11,500 square kilometres of wilderness, forcing thousands of indigenous James Bay Cree and Inuit out of their homes and villages.

Over 10,000 caribou were wiped out in the process. And even worse, flooded forest vegetation is now rotting, releasing mercury into the huge water reservoirs and making the fish inedible. The mercury is mostly a result of pollution from coal burnt in southern electricity plants and absorbed by the vegetation as it grew.

But no rivers were dammed at Niagara. As much as three quarters of the water exiting Lake Erie is now channelled to giant water turbines while the rest tumbles over the falls to entertain the tourists. And the good news – the diversion of water from the falls has been slowing down the rate of natural erosion, thus extending the life of the falls.

If you look closely to the centre left you can see the tunnel opening where the water is returned to the River.

Ontario gets about a quarter of its electricity from hydro power sources and Niagara is a major contributor to that. The demand for electricity is expected to increase as our population grows and as society converts from its current fleet of gas guzzlers and fossil fuel space heating. But there are few opportunities for clean water power left in Ontario.

Burning coal or gas for electricity production in Ontario never really made sense for a province with neither coal mines nor significant gas production. That was the case even before we understood the dangers of smog, acid rain and climate change. Nuclear energy allowed the province to get off coal and it currently supplies over half of the province’s electricity. But getting to reliability for the nuclear power facilities has been a long, costly and problem-plagued pathway.

New nuclear development, even with small modular reactors, is both costly and could take years to become operational. Recent research indicates that, though smaller in size and output, the new proposed small nuclear reactors (SMR) generate more nuclear waste per kilowatt hour than the larger heavy water facilities they’re intended to replace. The elephant in the room is the disposal of nuclear waste. Nobody anywhere has a viable solution to the steadily accumulating waste. Currently there are over three million highly radioactive spent fuel bundles lying in swimming pools, as ‘temporary’ storage.

In many ways the closest relative to that Niagara Falls water turbine is the wind turbine. Excepting solar energy and the emerging potential for green hydrogen, wind is the safest and cleanest form of renewable energy. Wind towers are relatively low cost, can be located easily, and produce significant amounts of energy depending on the blow, obviously. Wind towers have been blamed for occasional bird and bat collision deaths, though nothing compared to office towers, oil spills and mostly domestic cats. And even water power ends up killing some fish.

Wind power development in Ontario grew rapidly from nothing at the beginning of the millennium to about 8% by 2018 before the Ford government killed new renewable energy projects. Germany, by comparison, is planning to be 80% reliant on renewable energy by 2030. In the first quarter of this year Germans are already producing half of its electricity with renewables, the bulk of that being wind power, a source which has more than trebled over the last decade.

A glass walled elevator drops to the bottom of the power station where it returns to the Niagara River.

Doug Ford has reversed Ontario’s leadership in combating climate change, embracing fossil fuels in lieu of renewable energy. The Province has invested $3 billion for gas plants during his first term. Mr. Ford’s opposition to renewable energy can only be described as ideological because it is certainly not economically rational. Wind and solar, not gas, are the least costly means of increasing Ontario’s electricity supply.

And it is shortsighted since the province will need substantially more electricity to accommodate the conversion from fossil fuels, be it space heating, electric vehicles or new industrial investment in the face of federal restrictions on greenhouse gas emitting sources. For example, Ontario is losing the proposed $2.5 B Windsor battery maker LG Chem because the government could not guarantee electricity supply. Ontario may claim to be open for business, but not if business requires electricity.

That old power plant at Niagara Falls is a learning centre with many lessons for all of us. Using renewable energy is one of them. As Mr. Ford embarks on his next four year mandate to govern the province, he would do well to take direction from that piece of valuable history.

The Gazette will be doing a feature story on the Power Plant – it is a truly amazing site – well worth a visit.

Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor,  writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking.  Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington.  He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject.   Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa.  Tweet @rayzrivers

By Denis Gibbons

July 10th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

In May of 1937 King George VI was crowned in Westminster Abbey and rode down the Mall with his wife Queen Elizabeth in a blue Rolls Royce.  A similar vehicle was featured Saturday at the Burlington Car Show in the downtown area, complete with a tea set in the trunk and a Coronation flag mounted on the spare tire on the passenger side.

Tea set in the truck of an antique Rolls Royce

Anastasia Karpenko serves herself from an old A & W car tray.

The Karpenko family, which recently arrived in the Bay Area from war-torn Ukraine, was very impressed with the bright yellow 1955 Ford belonging to Randy Matthews. It was built in Dallas, Texas.

The Karpenkos hail from the city of Kryvyi Rih, which amazingly is 122 kilometres long and is the longest city in Europe.

Positioned on the driver’s side window of the car is an A & W root beer tray, harkening back to the days when waitresses used to deliver food to drivers on roller skates.

An 1897 Fossmobile was Canada’s first gasoline car.

Ron Foss of Burlington drew a lot of attention with a Fossmobile, which was invented by his grandfather George Foote Foss of Sherbrooke, Quebec, as the first successful gasoline engine automobile in 1897.

This young fellow is just loving being behind the wheel.

Tommy Gun’s Original Barbershop, at the corner of New Street and Appleby Line, got a lot of free advertising when owner Jamie Delaye Quong showed off a black 1939 Chevy Master Deluxe.

Tommy Gun’s Original Barbershop, at the corner of New Street and Appleby Line, got a lot of free advertising when owner Jamie Delaye Quong showed off a black 1939 Chevy Master Deluxe.

The sixth annual car show, which attracted hundreds of spectators, was presented by Angelo Paletta and TNG Exotics to raise money for Joseph Brant Hospital.

This qualifies as a people jam with the cars sitting quietly at the side of the street.

By Pepper Parr

July 8^th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

OPINION

I was talking to a colleague about the October municipal election trying to get a sense as to how the public was reacting,  Everything appears to be so quiet.

The response was that: “We had something to fight for last time” adding that “the hope we had seems to have been misplaced.  Some of the antics at Council are just so embarrassing”

It seems so quiet.  Candidates are out on the streets.  All are pumping out as much as they can on social media.

There are new candidates filing their nomination papers but they don’t appear to be very active.

Ward 4 is busy – three new candidates; the incumbent finally filed her nomination papers.

Anne Marsden, an as yet to file nomination papers for office of Mayor

There will be a candidate running against Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.  Anne Marsden has been running in elections for years.  Indefatigable, blunt, certain of the issues and vocal.

Seen by many as the perpetual candidate Marsden took a stunning 17,407 votes in Burlington when she ran for Regional Chair.  Her total count for the Region was 41,136.

2018 election results

The vote count wasn’t a fluke – people were sending a message.

Keep that 17,407 in mind and then look at the race for Mayor in 2018.

2018 election results

Marsden got more votes out of Burlington when she ran for the office of Regional Chair than Rick Golding got when he ran for Mayor

Somewhere in those numbers there is a meaning to be teased out.

Marianne Meed Ward – running for re-election

If the dissatisfaction with Marianne Meed Ward is as deep as we suspect there could be one heck of an upset come October. Municipal elections usually have low turnout.  The current administration is doing more than we have ever seen a municipality do in trying to interest people in running for office.

Jane McKenna, who wants to be Regional Chair this time around, is driving around in Burlington and Oakville in a pickup truck with a huge sign in the back.

Profile she has – that’s the problem and we will leave it at that.

Gary Carr is running again.

Gary Carr running for re-election as Regional Chair

Our expectation was that Carr would retire from active politics and that a Regional Councillor would run to replace him. There are several that are more than qualified but Tom Adam, Colin Best and Zeeshan Hamid have shown no interest.

A Regional Chair has to have some on the ground experience to be able to do the job effectively. Is Carr running to ensure that McKenna doesn’t get to wear that Chain of office?

The public might be in for a very nasty election.  Power is the kind of thing wars are fought over – look at what is going on in Ukraine not to mention what appear to be desperate attempts on the part of Donald Trump to continue to be President.

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.

By Pepper Parr

July 6^th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

After a bruising council meeting in June, ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte pulled herself together, got over to city hall and filed her nomination papers and began her campaign for re-election saying:

Hi, my name is Shawna  Stolte and I’ve had the distinct honour of representing the residents of Ward 4 as your City and Regional Councillor this past term.

Shawna Stolte: She has made some bold moves and some mistakes as well. The city is better due to both

As most of you may know, our first term of Council has been a BUSY four years.   Four years full of progress on important issues like the Climate Action Plan, the Climate Resilience Plan and finalizing Burlington’s new Official plan.  I have also had the pleasure of chairing and of championing Burlington’s first Housing Strategy that will lead the way to creating new attainable housing options that support the vision that everyone is welcome in Burlington.

We managed these and many other important issues…all while navigating the Covid 19 pandemic and pulling together as a community to support each other in ways we could never have imagined. As your City Council we have largely worked together to pursue a more fair, sustainable and strong Burlington and I am proud of the work we’ve done.

There have been bumps along the way and that’s OKAY. You don’t want a Council that agrees on everything all the time, that’s not representative of the many diverse views in the community.  We need a City Council where different views are valued, challenges are welcomed and debates on important issues are dealt with integrity and respect.  Over the past few months I’ve taken the time to really sit down, reflect and think about how I can best serve the Ward 4 community going forward.  There is a lot of important work still to be done in our community and because of that I have reconsidered and am proud to be launching my campaign today, for re-election here in Burlington as your Ward 4 City and Regional Councillor.

I’ve never been one to shy away from difficult issues or bow out when obstacles come my way.  I believe in standing up for transparency and accountability at City Hall and will always do what I believe best serves the citizens here in Ward 4 and across the city.  I’m excited to get back out into the community to meet with all of you…because we can do better Burlington…let’s do it together!

There are two other candidates running for the ward 4 council seat.