Mayors Marie Trainer and Rob Burton propose alternatives to problematic Oakville gas plant site

Mayors Marie Trainer of Haldimand County and Rob Burton of Oakville today, with Citizens For Clean Air (C4CA), outlined alternatives to plans to build a 975-megawatt gas power plant on a small parcel of land right next to homes and schools in a mature Oakville neighbourhood.

"Haldimand County has 4500 acres of available land within Nanticoke Industrial Park with a three kilometre buffer zone on the north shore of Lake Erie," says Mayor Marie Trainer. "Haldimand County has the space and we have the lines. There is also a 200-acre site adjacent to Nanticoke, well buffered from local residents, and our council has approved its use in principal."

"Unfortunately our Nanticoke coal-fired generating station is set to close by January 2015, resulting in the loss of 600 local jobs, property taxes and $3 million in economic spin offs," Mayor Trainer added. "To abandon this site would leave a massive electrical corridor virtually unused."

The site for the proposed Oakville gas power plant is merely 13.5 acres, with six schools and more than 1000 homes within one kilometer. Sixteen schools, eleven thousand homes, five senior citizens’ retirement homes, numerous day care and early learning centres, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, the Town Hall and hundreds of businesses are all within three kilometers of the proposed site.

"There are alternatives to the proposed, problematic Oakville site, but those alternatives have not been explored," says Doug MacKenzie, President of C4CA. "Nanticoke is situated within an established transmission corridor. Whether the existing plant at Nanticoke is retrofitted to burn natural gas or bio-mass instead of coal, or whether a new plant is built where there is ample space, the point is there are safer and better alternatives."

"Minister Duguid and Premier McGuinty have the opportunity to solve the issues facing these communities as the Government strives to build a clean energy supply," MacKenzie added. "We are asking them to do the right thing."

Citizens for Clean Air ("C4CA"), a non-profit organization, is a volunteer coalition of thousands of citizens. The group is committed to stopping the proposed Oakville Generating Station and to ensuring that there is a full and proper assessment of the project, including alternatives.