I’m curious just what process was in place to let this happen. Yes, I know it’s government, but I’m really curious what organizational process is in place to allow such an obvious thing to slip through.
He drew the new "Ontario Line" subway with a marker, replacing decades of planning for the Relief Line Toronto needs desperately. The subway is dangerously overcrowded at peak times and these changes will likely set the opening date back years.
He ordered gas stations to display a sticker showing the cost of the federal carbon tax simply because he doesn't like it with no planning. That was after scrapping the existing cap and trade program with a single pen stroke (costing the province hundreds of millions in broken contracts). Leaving the existing program alone would have meant no federal carbon tax.
He invented an environmental issues with bats to halt construction on a partially complete windfarm. Even local bat experts have no idea what he's talking about.
He passed a law saying public servants can't get a raise more than 1% prior to negotiating with the various teacher unions so he could negotiate in bad faith. After claiming there was no money for teachers he started paying parents a per diem for childcare during the rotating strikes.
During an active election he changed the number of councillors in Toronto city hall and threatened to use the notwithstanding clause to enforce it.
Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. All of these policies were announced with no public discussion, input period, or time to contact MPPs. Simply dreamt up by Dougie on the weekend and implemented Monday morning.
Premiers of provinces have a ton of power and not much beyond parliamentary norms hold them in check. Doug has exploited this to an extreme extent.
Worse! They actively started tearing down completed windmills as part of that project to the tune of $100 million!
We absolutely need to decarbonize our economy but there's a right way to do it where everyone is heard and involved. Ramming things through by fiat over the objection of the hosts never ends well, even if you believe you know best. This is how you get more Trump, Ford, Scheer, Brexit, etc...
Blows my mind that people never learn this.
There were extensive public consultations. You can view the outcome from that here:
https://whitepineswindfarm.webs.com/20120901%20WPWF%20(1-41-...
Some of the "sidelined" concerns were pseudo-scientific complaints about health effects but those were still addressed with sincerity.
Nothing was "rammed" through, and suggesting such a project was is pretty dishonest.
Host communities didn't gain anything other than many folks having dried-up or polluted wells from the footings driven into the ground, seeing roads destroyed by heavy truck traffic with no compensations to the municipality, and none of the promised green jobs materialized. They lost scenic views (some like windmills, some don't), property values, a general sense of knowing that they, and their opinions matter. Losing that last one is the most dangerous to a functioning society.
I'm still puzzled that you assume I have chosen a side in this. There' no war here since you are clearly unable to see both sides of the issue and further discussion is pointless.
I linked the document providing the large numbers of public consultations and their results. You made a lot of pretty inflammatory assertions as well, but I've never heard of these things from anywhere else.
Keeping in mind my home county is full of windmills on all sides. Not once have I heard of wells drying up or being polluted even from their harsher critics. And in this county nobody was "forced" to house a windmill. Farmers who opted to house one are well compensated to boot.
There are environmental studies done and accountability with regular updates to a number of institutions including Environment Canada expressly to prevent such problems. You can see how I am hesitant to believe hearsay in opposition to the results of studies by these kinds of organizations.