About Us

Coalition of Homeowners for Intelligent Power - (About Us)

Power plants don't belong in neighbourhoods!

We are a grassroots organization of ratepayers' associations in South Mississauga and South Etobicoke.

The City of Mississauga shares CHIP's concerns. In particular, CHIP and the city object to a project that would see seventeen million litres of fuel oil stored in above-ground tanks so close to Etobicoke Creek, a sensitive nature preserve. It is also close to a busy rail line, a combination that could prove deadly.

The plant will be allowed to burn fuel oil, a dirty fuel and major pollutant, but the Ministry of Energy calls it a 'clean energy' plant. And the Environment Ministry is calling it a "natural gas-fired facility", and ignoring the oil that is also being approved for combustion.

In September of last year CHIP and the City, together with seven other concerned parties, asked the Ministry of the Environment for an individual Environmental Assessment - a more careful evaluation - of the project.

Four months later, the Environment ministry denied their requests.

Shocked and appalled, CHIP and the City have asked the Minister to review and overturn the decision.

Mississauga City Council voted unanimously on February 1 to appeal to the Minister. CHIP has followed with its own letter today picking apart the Director's letter of denial, which "is so full of holes you can see through it," according to Tony

Jones, the group's Volunteer Chair. Among other things, the group found that the Director had:

Ignored 21 of CHIP’s 42 specific issues regarding the Proponent's so-called Environmental Screening Report;
Failed to address 20 of the remaining 21 either in any detail or with any supporting facts;
Addressed the remaining 1 by saying that Eastern Power agreed to a Community Advisory Committee, but without giving the Committee a meaningful mandate;
Accepted without challenge and/or merely repeated falsehoods or errors of fact made by Eastern in 5 instances;
Breached MOE's own protocols and procedures in at least two instances; and
Failed to provide his response in reasonable form -- that is, despite taking four months, the Director was unable to offer a point-by-point response, but instead wrote generalized statements in identical form letters to all requesters.

The local air pollution already exceeds the Province's own standards for air quality. The government has accepted the Ontario Medical Association report that demonstrates 5,800 premature deaths are caused each year by air pollution under the existing criteria. And yet the Director is denying residents' reasonable request for an Environmental Assessment.

The McGuinty Liberals are in a panic about electricity, and they will bend any rule to push through their poorly-thought-out plan. The Director even says the Environment

Ministry now considers 70 metres to be sufficient separation between homes and power Plants. This means no neighbourhood is safe.

We represent a growing alliance of 10,000 area residents who are opposing a gas and oil-fired power plant proposed for the banks of Etobicoke Creek near homes, a hospital and a residence for seniors.

The project is by Eastern Power Limited, a small, privately-owned concern that managed to win approval from the Ministry of Energy under its so-called "Clean Energy Supply" initiative.