It appears that this consultation effort is aimed more at legitimizing policy decisions the government has already made than soliciting and implementing input from the voters.
I was delighted to see references to my work in a Press release today from Lake Superior Action Research Conservation (LSARC), informing citizens about the review of Ontario's Long-Term Energy Plan prior to Tuesday's "public open house" in Sudbury.
On Tuesday August 13th, 2013, The Ministry of Energy will be hosting a public session/open house in Sudbury at the Quality Inn & Conference Centre Downtown, 390 Elgin Street South, between 7pm and 9pm. This public session/open house is one of 8 being held around the Province as part of the Ministry's 2013 Long Term Energy Plan (LTEP) review.I hope those who might either attend the session in Sudbury on Tuesday (or Barrie Thursday, or Ottawa next week), or intend on commenting on the Long Term Energy Planning, will continue reading LSARC's Media Release
The Ministry and OPA are also consulting behind closed doors, by invitation only, with 'Industry Stakeholders' earlier in the day. To the best of our knowledge no one from the public or media has been invited to any of these closed sessions.
The avowed purpose of the public sessions is to inform the Public of the issues, as interpreted by the Ministry and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and 'consult' with the Public on the choices to make. In support of this public consultation the Ministry and OPA have published a number of documents which are distributed to those attending any of these public sessions.
One such document, prepared by the OPA, is titled “Making Choices: Renewing Ontario's Long-Term Energy Plan”. It provides an insight into how the present Government sees its energy policy to be 'more of the same'.
The document also seeks to guide the discussion over energy in Ontario through a series of questions. Based on the current government's ideology and political platform the questions avoid a discussion of the underlying issues and as such this public consultation appears to be more and exercise in marketing than a true public consultation on a Long Term Energy Plan.
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