"Stakeholders not Shareholders"

Gordon Mack Scott, Managing Partner of the Strategic Improvement Company, speaks about the need to protect municipal assets, and public services, so that we can all be players in the greater economy.

I shot this interview in Ward 18, which is part of the Davenport Riding, a high priority region in the City of Toronto, which would be seriously impacted by the privatization of public services and sale of municipal assets.

It is my video response to the $4 billion postponed by Premier McGuinty for the Transit City Light Rail Transit system, which was to connect other priority areas, like Jane and Finch, into the economic and social life of Toronto more efficiently. Premier McGuinty first promised this funding in 2007.

Link to the full resolution Youtube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6VmvTLS2_k

Get Smart and Go Electric

We’re all in favour of a better public transit system. Everyone is on board. But no one should be asked to trade public health for public transit.” Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown
Electric vs Diesel Forum on March 22nd at City Hall
As I write this, I am sitting on a 4200-horsepower MP40 GO Train, and smelling the diesel emissions in my coach. My eyes are smarting. As a seasoned Lakeshore West commuter, I believe that people actually underestimate the future impact of the Georgetown South Service expansion, and Air Rail Link, will have on our west-end neighbourhoods. A GO engineer has admitted to me that GO ensures that there are buffer zones around train stations for a reason - the pollution and noise from diesel trains stopping and starting is too intense for nearby residential development.

Yet on the even more urban Georgetown Corridor, condos have been built within meters of the proposed expansion, their balconies overhanging the future seven, or eight, tracks. The number of tracks, or amount of exact train frequency, was not answered at the recent Electric vs Diesel Forum at City Hall, but was estimated to be around 200, with 140 of these trips by the Air Rail Link. I am still astounded by the informed standing room only audience, which asked pointed questions of VP Metrolinx, Gary McNeil which he could not answer, surrounded as he is by the Liberal Party 'cone of silence', an hysterically funny device perfected in 'Get Smart', a TV show which ran throughout the 1960s. NDP MP candidate, Andrew Cash, wrote so eloquently about the forum in NOW, that I can only link to his article. At the end of the forum, Councilor John Filion complimented those participating, and said it was a higher quality discussion than City Hall has seen in a long time. We laughed.

The truth of this project is so simple- if the corridor is built with electric trains, it will add value to all the communities it runs through by transit-oriented development. If it is built with diesel trains, it will damage our communities, and reverse the current trend of investment and revitalization. A third rate transit system will mean a third rate Toronto.

Why are these basic urban planning principles so difficult for the provincial government, and Metrolinx/GO transit to see? And why is no one else in the world, and I mean no one else, expanding diesel rail corridors directly beside parks, schools and condominiums? And why, oh why, are we considered worthy of a third rate Air Rail Link which will last for generations to come as our tax legacy from the Pan Am Games? Vancouver parlayed their Olympic investment into the SkyTrain, which has added to the welfare of their city, and we will be running Olympic athletes through a rat's maze of 5.5 concrete meter walls on their way to their Olympic Village, blocking west-end Toronto from their windows. What is there to hide? Bad transit policy and contempt for the rights of citizens?

To add insult to injury, although currently spending $4 million for yet another electrification study (is it twelve? or thirteen?), Metrolinx/GO is in the process of researching and developing platinum catalytic converters and Tier 4 'clean diesel' for the MP40s, as well as custom built diesel multiple units for the Air Rail Link. They will test these new, specialized technologies on the Georgetown South corridor, shortly after the latest electrification study is filed. Does this mean that this electrification study is a sham, and its inevitable support of electrification is a moot point? Is it a 'done diesel'? And why is Metrolinx/GO engaging community stakeholders, and their valuable time, to discuss the obvious through a highly publicized series of electrification workshops, yet in their independent, separate time line, viewing the choice of diesel locomotives as 'fait accompli'? Is this operating in good faith to include the input of these participants? And why is this SNC-Lavalin contract protected by a Maxwell Smart cone of silence with the government agencies involved in an elaborate game of broken telephone with the community, and with each other? And why has Metrolinx recently purchased more MP40s, which have a life span of 40 years?

As Mike Sullivan, Clean Train Coalition head, has pointed out, they are building this massive track expansion to enable the privately owned Air Rail Link. We are fighting KAOS, a labyrinthine, unaccountable organization, which has refused to hear our unanimous message asking for electrification. Nothing was more evident at the forum, as there were no clear answers from the Metrolinx VP Gary McNeil about any aspect of this project- not the final number of the tracks, the inefficiency of the privatization of the Air Rail Link, or the rationale for diesel. When I told him that this corridor would reverse revitalization in my community, he said "I do not see it that way". Well, he is the only transit manager in the world who could say those words with impunity, with the public relations machine of an arm's length transit agency backing him.

The absurdity of this all never ceases to amaze me, but I have a personal, pressing concern. This fall, I had a viral respiratory disease which took my breath away. For six weeks, I had asthma. It felt as if liquid concrete had been poured into my lungs, and because of the asthma, my body could not use my lungs to fight the virus with oxygen, extending my illness. I know the impact of diesel rail emissions as a commuter firsthand, and that Toronto relies upon the health of its air, its citizens and their lungs. I write with all my remaining lung capacity to raise the cone of silence surrounding Metrolinx, and the provincial government, to unveil their secret contract with SNC-Lavalin so they can communicate with the community, and heed their unanimous, standing room only call for electrification of this west-end rail corridor. Get smart, Metrolinx, and go electric.

References:
Get Smart - Cone of Silence (from episode 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1eUIK9CihA
Andrew Cash: 'Dumb like Diesel: Residents' eco concerns take a back seat to Pan Am Games in great train debate'
http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=174249
Metrolinx Electrification Study
http://www.metrolinx.com/electrification/past_studies.aspx
'Diesel rail a health hazard, forum told'
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/783769--diesel-rail-a-health-hazard-forum-told

Invitation to Electric vs Diesel Public Forum: Monday, March 22nd

This forum is a public discussion of the proposed Metrolinx expansion of the Georgetown South transit line and the rail link from Union to Pearson.

The Board of Health supports expanded public transit as a way to reduce vehicle traffic, but remains concerned about health risks and air quality impacts predicted with the proposed diesel rail expansion.

Date: Monday, March 22, 2010
Time: 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Place: Council Chambers, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street W.

Presentation
Moderator: Eva Ligeti, Executive Director, Clean Air Partnership

Panelists:
Gary McNeil, Executive VP, Metrolinx
Prof. Christopher Kennedy, Transportation Infrastructure Expert
Dr. David McKeown, Toronto Medical Officer of Health

Please feel free to distribute this invitation widely.

"It's Not Fair, We Want Clean Air": Citizens 4 Clean Air Rally

Today at 2 p.m., I attended an extraordinary rally at Queen's Park organized by the Citizens for Clean Air (C4CA). Thousands of people protested the proposed construction of a 900-megawatt natural gas power plant in Oakville, slated to be one of the largest in Ontario. They arrived en masse in 42 yellow school buses, with their mayors from Mississauga South, Oakville, and King Township leading the charge, to point out the flawed decision making process of TransCanada Corporation, and the Ontario Power Authority, which has permitted them to build this gigantic plant within 2 km of 5000 homes, and 16 schools. Why was I there? I care about clean air in Ontario, I teach at one of those nearby schools, and my brother's family lives near this area. The world is small and interconnected, and the Liberals, in their mad rush to grow an electoral empire, are putting this world I know at grave risk. My beloved Ontario is being threatened by those claiming to lead it. As I walked away from the rally, one of my students reached out their hand from a bus to wave good-bye.

This megawatt power plant is being fast-tracked, without a full federal Environmental Assessment process, which the Mayor of Oakville, Rob Burton, promises to pursue with all his formidable might. The C4CA might be gravely disappointed to find out, as I did in our case with Metrolinx, that TransCanada Corp., a private company, and the Ontario Power Authority, an arm's length agency, will collude with the federal Minister of the Environment to refine data during the Environmental Assessment process to avoid air quality exceedances and provide the go-ahead for construction. Most likely, the EA will say that the airshed in Oakville is already so highly polluted- what is a bit more 2.5 particulate matter added to the mix?

It is the same argument that I have heard from Metrolinx to rationalize the Georgetown South Service and Air Rail Link expansion, that CommunityAir has heard from the Toronto Port Authority, and most likely, that the C4CA will hear from the Ontario Power Authority. The pivotal question that must be answered is whether private companies, in this case, TransCanada Corp., have the best environmental interests of residents in mind as their highest priority due to their corporate mandate. In fact, is there not an intrinsic conflict of interest between a private company and residential communities when the objective of a company is to provide specific services for profit, vetted by a provincial arm's length agency? And when the mandate of the provincial and federal levels of the Canadian government, apparently, is to ensure that our infrastructure is dependent on fossil fuel, when the rest of the world is turning away from this dirty habit?

A public relations thorn in McGuinty's side is that two gas-fired power plants have blown up, one very recently. On February 7th, five people have died in Middletown, Connecticut, and twelve were injured, with a blast emanating for 48.2 km. The plant was run by Kleen Energy Systems (sic). The GO train serving Lakeshore West is within 50 metres of the proposed site for this plant, and its pipeline, and this gas powered plant will emit a vapour cloud, which will ice the tracks, and decrease visibility. If you were worried about Lakeshore West GO service before, you really should be now.

Premier Dalton McGuinty, and the Liberal Party, are directly responsible for this project, through faulty rationale enabling a false timeline. Our population is simply not growing that quickly, and Ontario has more than enough energy, a significant proportion of it renewable energy generated by Niagara Falls. In fact, as we speak, Ontario is selling off its surplus to the United States, and buying it back at a loss. NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns has revealed this information, published in a series of articles in the Star this summer. There is no other government in the world who would issue permits to build gas-fired power plants when they do not have a critical need of electricity, especially when they have surplus, renewable sources at their fingertips. This is part of the aggressive expansionist policy of Premier McGuinty, and he should prove the need for this plant to the opposition, and all Ontario residents.

Who is used to enforce these aggressive, fossil fuel guzzling decisions for unsustainable infrastructure? The Ontario Port Authority, the Toronto Port Authority, and Metrolinx are used to be the enforcers of these outdated projects. I am becoming very leery of any arm's length agency with the word "authority" as part of their title - it is guaranteed not to be one. There is simply no need to build this fossil fuel plant at $1.2 billion, there is no need to build a fossil fuel driven air rail link at $1 billion, and there is no need to expand fossil fuel short haul flights, with donations from the federal government rising to almost $600 million. In addition, all of these infrastructure choices have security risks associated with their operation as they are situated in the center of heavily populated regions. Premier McGuinty is leading us toward not only climate change, and environmental degradation, through heavily polluted air, but adding to this possible, future security breaches.

In the words of the assemblers, "It's not fair, we want clean air." This constitutional right extends to all residents of Ontario. There is no greater birthright, and no politician, or political party, who has the right to take this from us. Everyone who breathes should unite to say "We do not need to build fossil fuel based infrastructure for generations to come". The Liberals will feel the loss of these votes during the next federal election - they are angering enough ridings in the GTA. These constituents will become a critical mass as they form a coalition to fight for better air quality in the GTA. It is Premier McGuinty's job which might not be safe, although in his interview responding quickly to the rally, he guarantees that the gas-fired power plant will be.

There is an excellent documentary, 'Stop The Oakville Power Plant', at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUcVB0UgSmQ for more information.

References:
Citizens for Clean Air at http://www.c4ca.org/
Ontario Power Authority at http://www.powerauthority.on.ca/
Surplus Electricity in Ontario at
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/649763 and http://www.thestar.com/article/621552
At least 5 dead in Connecticut gas plant blast at http://www.canada.com/news/least+dead+Connecticut+plant+blast/2534227/story.html
Toronto Port Authority and Air Quality Measurement at http://www.torontoport.com/airport_facts.asp
McGuinty promises Oakville power plant will be safe at http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100302/plant_protest_100302/20100302/?hub=TorontoNewHome

We Need Heroes in the Davenport Diamond

"Toronto will commit suicide if it plunges the Spadina Expressway into its heart... our planners are 19th century men with a naive faith in an obsolete technology. In an age of software, Metro planners treat people like hardware‚ they haven't the faintest interest in the values of neighbourhoods or community."

- Marshall McLuhan, sometime during the campaign against the Spadina Expressway between 1959 and 1971

Sound familiar? Within the past month, I have sat across from Davenport Riding's MP Mario Silva, and MPP Tony Ruprecht, and discovered a void of leadership for my riding. It was like talking into a well, in which concerns echoed, but no resolutions were made, no actions taken, and the paper trail of contracts leading back to the Liberal Party and Queen's Park was erased.

Neither MP Silva, nor MPP Ruprecht, had made the slightest effort to prepare for this community meeting, or attend the Human Train Rally, and neither made any effort to pretend they had. MP Silva blamed the City of Toronto, and said that had the City of Toronto done more, this would not be happening. His buck passing met with a stony silence. Everyone at that table knew better, and had been working with Councillor Giambrone's office in different capacities, and his assistant made their involvement known - very well. The residents present were far more knowledgeable than either politician.

Vacuous. A vacuum. The center cannot hold, and that center of all this rail expansion is the Davenport Diamond, and that center has had no advocacy or representation. The Davenport Diamond will be the epicenter of the traffic, a triangle created by the Newmarket and Georgetown corridors running through Brockton Village, and bounded by CP tracks above the Junction Triangle. You would think that MP Silva and MPP Ruprecht would be alarmed.

When MP Silva asked why people in the rest of Toronto should be concerned about this rail corridor, I listed the $2.2 billion a year that the City of Toronto pays in health costs due to air quality, that according to the World Health Organization, particulate matter of diesel travels 200 km, and that Toronto is competing with Los Angeles for number of smog days. I had to reiterate that his riding, the Davenport Riding, was going to most impacted by the construction, traffic, noise, and vibration, and did he know which riding he represented? When was he here last? And why is his attendance record one of the lowest in the House of Commons?

Many in the Portuguese community believe that the corridor will be electrified at the outset through their Portuguese language media sources. Europe does not run diesel trains through inner city neighbourhoods; it is considered unconscionable. Silva has his M.A. in International Human Rights Law from Oxford, has been Vice-Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission, and serves the Canada-Portugal Parliamentary Association. He needs to advocate for the health of his immigrant constituents for integrated, sustainable municipal and intra regional transit, and for environmental justice, or he will lose his seat. He has the knowledge - we have paid for his extended leave for his education during a time when he should have been defending us. Currently, he is in Ireland researching failed states for his PhD dissertation. Failed states, and failure of representation. How apropos.

I have learned brutal truths as I have fought for the health of my ward, Ward 18. When a community is considered to be disenfranchised, it receives the lowest engagement of leadership and protection. This community is undercut by its representatives time and time again by their absence. Politicians predict their multicultural constituents will not protest, because if English is not their first language, they will have difficulty monitoring their advocacy. We are paying for the tuition of MP Silva abroad, and MPP Ruprecht has been AWOL for a long, long time, and in the meantime, my ward is about to be severed by diesel trains and walls that will divide its neighbourhoods. Davenport Riding is not considered to be part of the public, and the definition of 'public good' simply does not apply to our health, as there is no one advocating for us at the provincial or federal levels, and quite possibly in the future, at the municipal level. It is no coincidence that both these men are Liberal. Follow the contracts to the region beyond the greenbelt, ripe for development, and Liberal votes, and add to that party enforced silence.

Like the Spadina Expressway, this Georgetown South, Air Rail Link and Newmarket expansion will be the most pressing issue of the upcoming municipal, provincial and federal electoral campaigns. It is directly tied into quality of life for the entire City of Toronto. Make no mistake - the ongoing expansion of the Toronto City Centre Airport, Pearson International Airport, the addition of this GSSE, Air Rail Link and Newmarket rail corridor, and the Gardiner Expressway- will guarantee the GTA's championship status over Los Angeles for smog days, and bring with it even higher rates of respiratory disease, and they are proving, heart attacks. There is a 40% increase in the relative risk of death from heart disease and stroke in the most polluted areas, which will include the Davenport Diamond in the near future. Electrifying by 2030, indeed.

I must say that I am non partisan, but very green, and I will vote for any candidate who advocates for electrification, consolidates the project scope of this rail expansion, and works to protect the Davenport Diamond from diesel fumes. This issue is as important to Toronto as the Spadina Expressway was in the 1960s, with a similar social and economic price tag. Where is Jane Jacobs when we need her now?

As someone at the meeting said "Does the entire rail corridor have to become NDP before someone listens to us?" Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo has been the patron saint of this project, and no one else has earned my respect more. If future candidates come forward for all levels of elections, municipal to federal, who can also earn my respect, I will support their candidacy with all that I have. I want people to step forward to be heroes, represent Davenport properly as MP and MPPs, and as the new Mayor of Toronto. My ward and riding are waiting for you, too. It is clear that the Liberal Party does not care about our health, but they do care about our votes, and these votes are not being earned. So let others who have integrity come forward to earn our trust. Please, step into the void, so the center can hold again, and represent the best interests of those who live in the Davenport Riding and Diamond. We need you.

Invitation: On Tuesday, March 2nd at 7pm at the Gladstone Hotel, come out for the Railbender, the First Anniversary Party of the Clean Train Coalition. Mayor Miller will speak at 8pm.

References: Mario Silva's PhD in Ireland at http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/09/03/mitchel-raphael-on-who-wore-jeans-under-his-tuxedo/

Toxic Air Increases Risk of Death athttp://www.healthzone.ca/health/article/579542#comments

Spadina Expressway at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spadina_Expressway

Jane Jacobs at http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/jjacobs

Fighting the System: Congratulations West Toronto Diamond Community Group

On February 3rd, the West Toronto Diamond Community Group received a ruling in their favour from the Federal Court of Appeal regarding their opposition to GO's request for a Stay of the Canadian Tranportation Agency ruling, which regulates the use of quieter methods for piledriving. Their initial request was simple - would GO/Metrolinx use vibratory piledrivers, and augers, when possible, instead of diesel hammer piledrivers, please? The diesel impact hammers are making it impossible for us to enjoy our lives, and damaging our community. The group had already received the CTA ruling in their favour, but Metrolinx found it necessary to contest it, although they had recently purchased equipment to be more considerate. Their contention? That these less intrusive methods would add to the length of the project, and costs, although these were not proven in court.

It says volumes about the integrity of Metrolinx/GO that they contested what is common courtesy, the use of quieter construction methods, and spent thousands of dollars of legal fees to fight the rights of citizens so that they could pound this project through without checks and balances. It is emblematic of the ruthless, shortsightedness of GO/Metrolinx' project design, and extends to every aspect of its implementation. Congratulations to the West Toronto Community Group, and their lawyer, David Baker, for coming forward and demanding what is right. Legal costs were granted by the Federal Court of Appeal to pay Mr. Baker, confirming that it was a vexatious appeal.

People often ask me what is wrong with Metrolinx' plan for rail expansion, and the answer is that it is Quick, Dirty, Diesel, Divisive and Destructive as opposed to building a Corridor which is Livable, Electrified and Accessible for all Neighbourhoods. Try as I might, I cannot come up with a clever acronym like CLEAN for the Metrolinx' version of transit planning as I doubt they thought through their public relations campaign in advance.

This project planning is so quick that it is not integrated with TransitCity's Light Rail Transit in the City of Toronto, so duplicates future services. It is so dirty that it requires three air monitoring stations to analyze air pollution close to childrens' playgrounds. It uses diesel locomotives, which no one else in the world would use for inner city corridors. It is divisive, so requires very long and very high walls for sound mitigation as the noise from the volume of traffic will far exceed 10 db. These massive walls will run like the Berlin Wall through neighbourhoods. Finally, it is destructive to established neighbourhoods, with beautiful historic properties, and vibrant arts communities, such as the Junction, Queen Street West, Liberty Village and Weston, and runs roughshod over residents with its lowest grade practices for its construction. GO engineers are on record saying that these twelve communities are 'marginal' to justify this corridor's frantic imposition on west-end communities.

I spend a lot of my time thinking about, and teaching, human-centered interaction design and systems theory. Whether interactive systems, or transit systems, their ultimate goal should be to serve people. The Big Move, the document upon which the GSSE/UPRL is based, has never considered anyone other than the willynilly development of subdivisions in the 905, and the running of executives through our communities to the airport, racetrack and casino. I marvel at a project which would double its ridership, efficiency and value if it included those along the corridor by being redesigned to incorporate broader, integrated, electric transit initiatives. I shake my head at project timelines which do not include a far reaching vision for environmentally sound design, coordination with municipal transit systems, and analysis of the impact of its construction and operation on surrounding communities.

The West Toronto Diamond Community Group, and their lawyers, were the courageous, first line of defense in a fight which will continue along the tracks, as Metrolinx/GO begins construction on the Davenport Diamond, which requires three times more construction than the West Toronto Diamond. Let's hope this ruling is the beginning of standards to be set for methods of quieter construction in the future, and finally includes us, those who will be impacted by every decision made, for the first time.

The Decision: This is the ruling regarding Metrolinx/GO vs the West Toronto Diamond Community Group and the City of Toronto http://decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca/en/2010/2010fca38/2010fca38.html Its brevity speaks volumes.

NEWS ALERT

THE STAY OF THE CTA RULING WAS NOT GRANTED BY THE FEDERAL COURT OF APPEAL, and diesel impact hammers have been halted. For more information, go to http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/article/760276--court-upholds-order-for-go-to-halt-heavy-hammer-use