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By: Patrick Mangion
Aurora is the third of four northern York Region towns targeted for a controversial power plant, to reject the plan.It means the likelihood of Queen’s Park dictating where a 350-megawatt, natural gas-fired peak-demand power plant will be built in York Region is closer to becoming reality.
Aurora council made the decision Tuesday under considerable deadline pressure.The Ontario Power Authority’s deadline for input is Monday.By not taking a position about the power plant, Aurora feared it could be interpreted as a willing host.Aurora’s refusal to host the power plant was also shaped by concerns over proximity to residential areas and pollution from the plant.Two sites for the peak-demand plant have been proposed in Aurora.Georgina, which has one proposed site within its borders, was first to declare itself an unwilling host to the plant.East Gwillimbury, which has three proposes sites, snubbed the power plant proposal earlier this month.King Township, which has two proposed sites for the plant, is the only town yet to reject the plan.The province has warned it could intervene and decide which York Region town will house the peak-demand plant or the initial plan to build larger transmission towers, which faced widespread public opposition, could be re-tabled.Meanwhile, support for the peak-demand plant received a big boost when all of York Region’s chambers of commerce and boards of trade, representing more than 10,000 businesses, got behind the power authority’s plan.“We are deeply concerned that unless this project goes forward without further delay, areas of York Region may face brownouts, or perhaps even blackouts, that will disrupt business, discourage growth and investment in the northern part of the region, and undermine York Region’s reputation as a good place to do business,” the group states in a letter to newly appointed Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman.