Some odds and ends today.
Unfortunately, the Smart Avenues pilot project from Enersource Hydro Mississauga aimed at helping residents get the most out of their smart meters has hit a bit of a dead end.
The Ontario Energy Board has approved projects in Ottawa and Hamilton to go ahead with more detailed pilots for detailed implementation of the meters, which will start to be installed in local homes this year and are to be in every Ontario home by 2010.
They will calculate the time-of-day when energy is used and charge you more if you power up during peak periods of use, and give you a rate break if you do your laundry or use your dishwasher late at night. The changing rates are designed to encourage conservation and penalize the energy hogs.
The community south of The Queensway down to the QEW, from the Credit River over to Hurontario St., was used for the two-year pilot. Enersource tested several programs including technology that allowed you to log onto the Internet and look at your hour-by-hour power useage and allowed participants to watch the effects of turning off appliances or electronics.
Ken MacDonald of Enersource says Smart Avenues helped the company figure out how to encourage people to get the most from their meter. Probably more importantly, it helped map the best technological approaches to installing the new meters right across Mississauga.
Some of the programs continue including Peak Saver, where you can get a new programmable thermostat in return for signing up to allow your air conditioning to be turned down, or off, for brief periods in the heat of summer to reduce overall power use. There’s a button to sign up for the program on Enersource’s front page at www.enersource.com.
One of those participating will be Mayor Hazel McCallion. Of course, it’s perfect for her — since she’s never at home.
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Congratulations to the student body at UTM who turned out in force (more than 2,000 votes cast) at a referendum last week to support a UPass for public transit for eight months of the year. Students will pay $89 more in student fees but will get a pass for unlimited travel on Mississauga Transit during the regular school year. The idea has been floating around for years and years but never came to fruition until transit and UTM administration finally got this proposal done.
It’s guaranteed revenue for transit and significant savings for most students who commute.
The size of the majority (83.2 per cent) indicates that lots of undergrads, who don’t use transit and must still pay for parking on campus, have figured out that there is a bigger picture out there. As Mark Overton, dean of student affairs, said, “students realize that this arrangement will trim their transportation costs and their environmental footprint.”
Just by coincidence, UBC Professor Bill Rees, who invented the ecological footprint model, is going to be a special guest lecturer at the Mississauga Rd. campus in March.
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Maybe somebody besides the cognoscenti will finally clue in on the extraordinary talent of Lori Cullen now that she has been nominated for a Juno for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year. As I said in my 2006 year-end wrap-up, the Mississauga native’s Calling For Rain CD is a revelation that just keeps getting better with repeated listenings. It’s a collection of (mostly) covers that still works wonderfully together. Warning: Lori’s version of Joni Mitchell’s voyeuristic Two Grey Rooms will give you goosebumps.
It’s unfortunate that a superb jazz vocal record by another singer largely raised in Mississauga, Denzal Sinclaire, was not nominated. My One and Only Love is a tour-de-force for Sinclaire, who discovered his love for jazz during music classes at Applewood Heights.
Judging by the sweep of nominations by five women for vocal jazz honours, the Junos may have to consider a separate category for male and female jazz singers in future.