Random Access

The big bang at Lakeview June 25 may sound like nothing compared with the hullabaloo to follow, once the dust has cleared and the layers of steel, equipment and concrete have all piled up on each other.
There was an excellent turnout of ratepayer groups Tuesday when Ontario Power Generation put on a small information centre at the site to explain what is going to happen Mon. June 25. That’s when the powerhouse at the venerable station will bite the dust, as the stacks did a year ago.
It’s safe to say that the residents weren’t just there for nostalgic reasons. They want to know what OPG and the provincial government have in mind over the long term for the gigantic site. Construction on Lakeview began June 1, 1958 and Premier John Robarts pushed the button to start the first unit June 20, 1962.
As it so happened, current Premier Dalton McGuinty dropped into our newsroom two days later, so there was an opportunity to pose the obvious question: hasn’t Mississauga done its part already by hosting the GTA pollution party for the past 43 years?
Mississauga South MPP Tim Peterson says the issue was a key reason for his decision to cross the floor to the Tories. Peterson cited his disillusionment with the Liberals for pushing the power agenda in Mississauga, given the air quality deterioration substantiated by the Clarkson Air Shed Study done by the Ministry of the Environment. Peterson says the Grits are poised to approve the Southdown Sithe plant, the Greenfields South plant on Loreland Ave. AND the new natural-gas plant at Lakeview.
The Premier began his response, as he did with many of the specific questions he was asked, with an appeal to look at the “macro” level. McGuinty said the government has lost the equivalent generating power of Niagara Falls and was left by the Tories without adequate power supplies for the future. The Liberals have a new, greener plan pending but also have a standing obligation to supply and meet electricity needs.
“The advantage that Lakeview has is that the transmission capacity is there,” said the Premier.
Then comes the cruncher: “All communities are going to have to ask themselves, not what OPG can do for you, but what they can do to help meet our electricity needs.”
That answer is bad news for all those folks living in the “micro” environment around Lakeview.
The memorandum of agreement between OPG and Enersource Mississauga, to explore the possibility of a Lakeview gas-fired plant, which could be 800 megawatts or more, is evidently very much alive. When the chief pooh-Bah for the only shareholder in OPG, the government of Ontario, says even by inference that it makes sense to put a gas plant on Lakeview, you can be sure it’s in the cards.
McGuinty also worked into his response a reference to how proud he is of the post-Peterson era Liberal candidate in Mississauga South, Royal Bank vice-president Charles Sousa.
What stand will the newly-minted Liberal candidate take on the power plant, which will undoubtedly be the number 1 local issue in the South in the pending provincial election? Will Sousa play Mutt to McGuinty’s Jeff?
There’s an interesting parallel in the municipal microcosm too. Mayor Hazel McCallion has been very supportive of the idea of a new-generation Lakeview, which would provide an important local load source and improved security of service for Mississauga residents.
McCallion has been on a PUC or a hydro commission almost since the day she entered politics four decades ago.
But one of the newly-appointed councillors to the Enersource board is Ward 1 Councillor Carmen Corbasson, who represents Lakeview. She has made her anti-power politics stance for that property very clear.
Stay tuned. There are going to be lots of interesting force fields at work here.

Thanks to Jim Tovey, head of the Lakeview Ratepayers’ Association, for the picture of the powerhouse.