Solar Jobs and What About Bob?

Here comes the sun…

Big news last week in Guelph as a well-known and accomplished manufacturer of solar modules is moving to town to set up a shop. This is good news for the 300-500 jobs that will be put on the block for Guelphites, as well as fulfilling the promise of bring more green jobs to the city, which has been a heavily campaigned topic in recent elections. The company’s named Canadian Solar Inc and Guelph will be home to its first plant based outside of China. Canadian Solar is the world’s eighth largest solar module company and its new Guelph facility will be one of the largest on the continent.

"Today’s announcement by Canadian Solar Inc. means hundreds of good jobs for Guelph,” said Mayor Karen Farbridge at the announcement at 545 Speedvale Ave, the future home of Canadian Solar’s facility. “It shows early success of the City’s economic development plan, Prosperity 2020, and represents the number one objective of the Community Energy Initiative, which is to position Guelph as a place to invest.”

The city officials and Canadian Solar executives in attendance attributed the choice of Guelph, over other areas in manufacturing-centric Southwestern Ontario, was due in large part to Guelph’s Community Energy Initiative. The initiative outlines measures to use less energy in 25 years than the city does today, to consume less energy per capita than comparable Canadian cities, and to produce less greenhouse gas per capita than the current global average.

“We chose Ontario and Guelph because of the province’s and city’s strong research and development, and the local and provincial governments’ commitment to investing in a low carbon economy,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman, President and CEO of Canadian Solar Inc. “The site selection for the new facility spread across Ontario, but in the end Guelph was chosen over several major cities as a result of its commitment to making sustainability the hallmark of the community through the Community Energy Initiative.”

Canadian Solar’s new Guelph facility is valued at about $24 million and the first phase of operations is expected to begin later this year. Once at full capacity the facility’s total output will generate enough solar power greater than the entire current electrical demand of the Guelph community, according to the press release. It certainly sounds pretty impressive anyway. One can only hope that this may be the start of a trend in terms of local green power.

In other jobs news, the Organic Meadow and Steen’s Dairy opened a new facility in Guelph on the same day as the Canadian Solar announcement. Carol Mitchell, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs was in attendance along with many of the farmers who supply the dairy. Steen's Dairy says the new 20,000 square foot facility will allow the company to double production and keep up with modern efficiencies, while being able to process conventional and organic products.

What About Bob?

So it happened last Monday. Ward 6 Councillor Christine Billings joined ward-mate Karl Wettstein in the race to get re-elected to her seat on the horseshoe. So that means that all the incumbents on council, save one, have declared one way or the other, with only Kathleen Farrelly refraining from running again.

But what of Farrelly's fellow Ward 1 councillor Bob Bell? In the most competitive race in the whole darn election, he's the only incumbent to not say either way whether he's in or not (at least by deadline), and time is running out. Of course, the flip side is that Wards 3 through 6 are running challenge-less so far. Time is running out for people to throw their hats in the ring. Can a flood of last minute candidates be in the offing?

Nominations for mayor, city council, and school boards close on September 10th.

Earth Hour and Air Pollution

Guelph’s Going Dark, Again

If you notice the lights on your block going out for an hour on Saturday night, then fear not because it just means that your neighbours are supporting the 2010 edition of Earth Hour, as is the City of Guelph. Guelph will be one of 172 Canadian municipalities that will be participating in the annual observance/awareness campaign in support of promoting energy conservation and combating climate change. “Turning out the lights for Earth Hour is a symbolic gesture, but it is a good opportunity for us to reflect on how our quality of life is impacted by our use of energy and the importance of using energy wisely,” says Mayor Karen Farbridge. In every city facility, all but essential lighting will be turned off from 8:30 pm till 9:30 pm, and the city is encouraging residents to do the same and register their conservation efforts at guelph.ca/earthhour

Stop Coughing, it’s not air pollution (says study)

But why waste your time with Earth Hour, some may ask. Especially now that one University of Guelph professor has co-authored a study finding that previously held assertions about the correlation between air pollution and respiratory disease may not be as solid as previously though. U of G economics professor Ross McKitrick, long known as one of the ubiquitous fifth dentists when it comes to global climate change, analyzed a database of 11 Canadian cities over a 20 year period with the assistance of Gary Koop of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and Lise Tole of the University of Edinburgh. Their results, published in the journal Environmental Modelling and Software, showed that there was no evidence that air pollution affected hospital admission rate or time spent in the hospital, at least not as much as smoking and income levels. It’s worth pointing out though that Tole and Koop, like McKitrick, are economists, and that this is one study versus hundreds that have found, and continue to find, a link between the crummy air we breathe and the incidents of respiratory-related conditions like asthma. Meanwhile advanced researchers in the field of insultology, contend that air pollution is a prime factor in “that Hamilton smell.”

Bits and Bites

Looks like the lights at St. George’s Square won’t be altered anytime soon as per a vote by members of the city’s emergency services, community services and operations committee. As per a council vote last December, subtle changes were made to the lights in the square in an effort to make things more convenient for motorists. The initial request came from the Downtown Business Association who noted that traffic downtown had dropped in the last 20 years, and suggested a change to the stop lights might be an enticement. However, traffic and parking manager Alister McIlveen told council that there had been no comments, either for or against the changes, and thus the lights will stay the same for now. He added that when the transit hub opens on Carden St. in a few years, the city may want to revisit the issue.

In campaign news, it seems that Ward 1 Councillor Kathleen Farrelly will not be seeking re-election, however Ward 1 need not necessarily be left Farrelly-less come October. Instead, Kathleen’s son Sean Farrelly, himself a former city councillor that represented Ward 2 for nine years, will be running for his mother’s council seat in the fall. The current Councillor Farrelly, meanwhile, will settle down after she gets remarried this June. She intends to spend a lot of time travelling to visit her new husband’s relations on East Coast. Have you caught election fever yet? Then click on guelph.ca/vote/ to stay up to date and call me in the morning. (That was a joke, please don’t call me.)

Ward 1: The Centre of it All

After an unpredictably lengthy hiatus, it’s time to return to my award-eligible series (hint), “Better Know a Ward.” For the third part of this six part series, we go to St. Patrick’s; Ward 1 – the Fightin’ First. The borders of Ward 1 extend from downtown to the south-eastern border of Guelph; everything east of Victoria Road, and south of Eramosa and Eastview Roads. The two people charged with representing this diverse area are first-term Councillor’s Kathleen Farrelly and Bob Bell. I sat down with Farrelly and Bell last week, in the parlour of Farrelly’s home, to talk about issues in the Ward.

Bell and Farrelly make no qualms, they both consider Downtown Guelph to be the most important part of the city and there are some big changes coming in the next couple of years. The next step comes in January, when council will vote on whether or not to make the downtown train station the official Go Train terminal in Guelph. Bell calls it “the single biggest thing that will happen to downtown Guelph this decade,” and is part of an overall plan to revolutionize transit in, and out of, town.

The target date right now is to bring the GO Train back to Guelph by 2011, but before that, Bell and Farrelly have their eyes set on 2010, the date to create a new transit hub along Carden Street, bringing together out of town buses, trains and Guelph Transit into a single strip in the downtown. “That would enable someone to get from downtown Toronto to the University [of Guelph], on public transit, in about 70 minutes,” explains Bell. “That’s when you can really get people hauled out of their cars, if you can provide a faster service.” Adds Farrelly, “And to be as convenient as possible, which it would.”

This plan has not come without some controversy however. “Some people are very much against the relocation of the transit hub and some people seem to love it,” says Farrelly. “What was explained to us is that while the hub is being moved, the buses will still go through downtown, we’re not losing that bus stop downtown.” What might be lost though is the number of buses going through downtown. In order to create more efficiency, and to expedite travel from points A to B, Bell particularly wants to see Guelph Transit move to a grid system with express and cross-town routes that don’t have to stop downtown.

In the meantime, there are concerns in the Ward beyond transit, but are nonetheless of practical importance: the grocery store and retail deficit in the East End. “What the East Enders want is fair city investment, and the provision of services there to be at a par with other areas of the city,” says Bell. “There’s no dispute right now that they’re being treated unfairly.” Farrelly adds that the delay is not the fault of the city, but the fact that the corporations that own the land, Loblaws and Metro, have yet to capitalize. “What they’re saying is that they’re rethinking the size of the store, with the view of not having the huge stores they presented.”

And that’s not likely to change given current economic conditions and in a new age of fiscal restraint given the global recession. Like all city employees and representatives, Bell and Farrelly say they’re looking for ways to keep costs down and are re-evaluating certain purchases. Bell says he took a suggestion that the city could put off the purchase of replacement computers, which has a price tag of $1 million. “You have to be very conscious of where your discretionary funding goes,” he says. Buying new computers won’t necessarily help Guelph because they’re manufactured overseas.

All-in-all, and given the seemingly enormous nature of some of the issues facing the ward, Farrelly and Bell say that the job has been more or less what they expected. But Farrelly knew advanced what her duties might entail; her son was on the council from 1993 to 2003. And if there’s one thing these two Ward 1 representatives have in common, it’s a dislike for the trappings of government. “I’m very impatient with red tap and bureaucracy,” says Farrelly, who adds that she’s learning patience. But if she and Bell are proud of one thing, it’s maintaining a campaign promise to keep council functional and communicative. “Even though we disagree on issues, we still maintain our civility and friendliness, we don’t harbour ill-will,” she adds, “We’ve made a point of that.”