Thanks to one of our contributors for this post.

The recently run ads are just one more way of people getting their message out when other communications channels are not necessarily capturing the full story. On a related note, I have yet another message I would like to share that is not likely to be picked up by the local media any time soon.

It struck me as ironic and a bit of a coincidence that the recent well written Banner story about the peaking plant project that could well be faltering in King Township, in part as a direct result of our Mayor’s actions and inactions (although that point was not made in the story), was pulled from the Aurora and King York Region.com / Metroland WebPages just a few days after being posted. On the Aurora page the story was replaced with a “Right to Dry” cloths line story featuring our Mayor’s accomplishments along with a quote from one of her long time supporters to boot.

To be fair, the York Region.com / Metroland Press website does appear to be updating stories more rapidly these days, so there may not be any covert or manipulative effort so steer public opinion, but from my vantage point some more well informed and balanced perspective will be critical as we lead up to the 2010 municipal election.

The Mayor’s Right to Dry efforts may have resulted in local power consumption savings that could amount to the annual consumption of two or three homes (but most certainly under ten homes), which is all well and good. The Provincial implications of the new Right to Dry legislation may have even resulted in saving enough power to equal the consumption from the developments that Aurora alone has approved for development in the past one or two years, however it should also be noted that it is this same Mayor that passed resolutions concerning the proposed gas fired peaking plant without even understanding the basic need or the viable alternatives or the fact that the peaker was in fact required for numerous valid environmental reasons, including supporting the power reliability needs resulting from the implementation of sustainable alternatives such as wind and solar power as well as the benefits resulting from replacing more dirty coal power sources. The implications of or Mayor’s handling of Council’s poorly informed and illogical stance on the proposed peaking plant are far more wide reaching than the recently featured Right to Dry Campaign that the Mayor is apparently so proud of.

From a power planning and approval perspective, Aurora’s mishandling of this issue could well have had an incredibly detrimental impact on any number of communities that could be now be faced with the Ontario Power Authority’s new procurement rules, where Aurora was once in a position to play a key leadership role in developing new standards and practices, however our Council’s very apparent incompetence and apathy appears to have gotten in the way of constructive and well informed dialog. I appreciate that very few people seem to care about following such matters closely, but I can assure you these issues of concern should be appreciated by anyone as concerned about the environment as the Mayor, Council and EAC claim to be.

If I have learned anything from my extensive experience with the Mayor and Aurora Council, it’s that a serious reality check is needed with regards to much of what the they are saying these days. Unfortunately our community can not always rely on investigative journalism to cover the full story to the extent warranted, so in closing, thanks again to the participants of the Aurora Citizen Blog for all of your efforts and interest!