Controversial E-Bus Generators Run On Natural Gas
Some notes from the transit commission meeting Monday …
Barrhaven East Councillor Wilson Lo, who is starting to look like the sharpest knife in the drawer on Ottawa City Council, asked one of the questions that everyone wants to know which was what do the generators that “back up” the e-bus generating equipment operate on? It’s natural gas which was a point of contention in the current controversy on the e-bus generators with a number of people saying the generators operated on diesel. That saves The Bulldog from having to write a correction on the issue and eliminates some of the other candidates beyond diesel and natural gas such as tofu, granola, old Birkenstocks, white wine and wicker… The question Lo and other councillors failed to ask conclusively was are these generators the prime source of power for the e-bus fleet thus defeating the purpose of the entire $1-billion project. The answer from staff was a fair amount of waffling … On the subject of waffling, city staff in its report presented to the commission failed to mention how the generators would be powered. These guys are scared … Beacon Hill-Cyrville Councillor Tim Tierney asked a few serious questions so we hope that he has got past his naming snow plows and Nickelback tattoo part of his career. Tierey was starting to look like the reincarnation of the unserious ex-mayor Jim Watson. No word if Tierney will start getting pictures taken of him skating down the canal with two youngsters or making plans to hire a big spider and reptile for the next major city function. Those were major policy issues touted by Watson in preparation for Canada 150 and to celebrate the role of spiders and reptiles in the founding of Canada … Why have the other media in town not even tried to catch up to The Bulldog on the e-bus generating issue and the fact that council wasn’t told about the generators before it voted to approve $1 billion on e-buses? Are they so far behind that they can’t catch up or do they not care? … Alta Vista Councillor Marty Carr spent much of the transit commission meeting mugging, chuckling and making faces into the camera on her desk. This while the commission was discussing the $1-billion e-bus project. If Carr can’t take a billion dollars seriously, maybe it’s time she found a new vocation where mugging on a camera is part of the job description. Your agent was waiting for her to start throwing spitballs in class …
Ken Gray
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Now the controversial gas pipeline upgrade to St Laurent Blvd is confirmed to be part of this plan. Funny how that never came up in January.
The second part to be confirmed is:
Is this part of the Ford Governments plan to add gas generation to the grid instead of renewable generation and storage? (adding new CO2 to a currently very “clean” grid )
If so, then provincial funding may be a big carrot. (See how Napanee grabbed the “money” to take new gas generators for power).
I am wondering if the city and province ever tell the truth or whole story!
Ken, have you heard how long they expect to use these now gas-fired generators?
Thanks,
Jake
j no sorry k
So why couldn’t they have just come out and said that when the questions first started to be raised? Just a simple question. It makes absolutely no sense to allow the conversation to go on rumbling when a short and sweet memo or a press release would have cleared it up.
Unlike Jim Watson and some others, I don’t have a degree in communications but I know that when a potentially negative story pops up and you can quash it by providing some information, that’s what you do. And you do it quickly.
The Voter:
Having watched the poor work of councillors yesterday at transit commission, I don’t think this has a grasp of what their responsibilities in a democracy.
It was a pathetic display.
cheers
kgray
It often seems that if there’s an easy way and a hard way of doing something, both councillors and staff choose the harder, more convoluted way. They knew the information about the generators fuel source would have to be released eventually but chose to waste time and resources not providing the answers people were asking for.
The more you try to withhold the information, the more it looks like you have something to hide which both incents people to try and find the answers on their own and increases the level of distrust and skepticism about the answers you do provide. People wonder if you’re holding things back because you’re trying to massage the truth to make it more palatable or you’re further developing the lie you plan to tell. It’s rare that there is a good motive behind hiding information and so ordinary people are likely to jump to negative conclusions.
If the time and resources they put into not answering legitimate questions were to be turned to more positive endeavours, we would see a lot of progress at the City towards delivering needed services. But that’s not how the City operates.