To: jgerretsen

To: jgerretsen.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; attorneygeneral@ontario.ca CC: kathleen.wynne@ontario.ca; premier@ontario.ca; tim.hudakco@pc.ola.org; ahorwath-qp@ndp.on.ca; christine.elliott@pc.ola.org; tabunsp-qp@ndp.on.ca; jschein-qp@ndp.on.ca; michael.harrisqp@pc.ola.org; dean.allison.m1@parl.gc.ca; lisa.thompsonco@pc.ola.org; minister.moe@ontario.ca; bchiarelli.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org; write2us@ontario.ca; infoline.moh@ontario.ca; dmatthews.mpp@liberal.ola.org; commissioner@eco.on.ca

Subject: Abuse of Power Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 17:50:04 -0400

Ministry of the Attorney General McMurtry-Scott Building 720 Bay Street, 11th Floor Toronto, ON M7A 2S9

Dear Attorney General John Gerretsen,

I have been trying to compose a letter to you as Attorney General of Ontario about the general abuse of power that seems to have occurred by the elected members of the political system with respect to the renewable energy initiative and more specifically the Green Energy Act. Members of the West Lincoln community have sent endless letters and emails to the Ministry of the Environment with concerns about the Industrial Wind Turbine project proposed for our area. Concerns regarding incomplete studies; incorrect sound power ratings for the 3 MW Enercon 101 industrial wind turbines; lack

of due process and just a complete lack of meaningful communication with members of the political system that have been elected to serve and protect has resulted in extreme frustration.

Meaningful communication with the Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ontario Ombudsmen, and other ministries whose mandate is to protect the health, safety, quality of life and well being of citizens and their properties has been reduced to carefully scripted replies that fail to address the issues, replies that absolve that specific department of any responsibility or more frequently long delays or silence.

In researching what senior politicians were in what positions of power and control when the Green Energy Act was being crafted and what has happened to their political careers since that time, a rather tangled web seems to emerge. Many of the same senior Liberal politicians keep popping up in many of the key ministries that facilitated the renewable energy initiative.

According to some reports the five founding members of the Green Energy Act were George Smitherman, John Gerretsen, Leona Dombrowsky, Donna Cansfield and John Wilkinson

Minister of Energy and Infrastructure - George Smitherman - 20082009,

Gerry Philips 2009-10,

Brad Duguid 2010-11,

Chris Bentley 2011-13,

Bob Chiarelli 2013 present

Minister of the Environment

John Gerretsen - October 29, 2007 to August 18, 2010,

John Wilkinson - August 18, 2010 to October 20, 2011

Jim Bradley - October 20, 2011 to present

Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Leona Dombrowsky 2005-2010

Carol Mitchell, 2010-2011

Ted McMeekin, 2011-2013

Ministry of Agriculture and Food - Kathleen Wynne, 2013 - present

Ministry of Rural Affairs - Jeff Leal 2013 - present

Minister of Natural Resources - Donna Cansfield, 2007-2010

Linda Jeffrey, 2010-2011

Michael Gravelle, 2011-2013

David Orazietti, 2013-

Minister of Research and Innovation - Dalton McGuinty 2005-2007

John Wilkinson 2007-2009

John Milloy June 24, 2009 August 18, 2010

Glen Murray August 18, 2010 - 2011

Reza Moridi 2013 -

Green Energy Act, Bill 150 voted on May 14, 2009 Not one member of the PC Party voted in favor of the GEA.

NDP members who voted in favour of the GEA include : Andrea Horwath NDP leader, France Glinas, Rosario Marchese, Paul Miller, Peter Tabuns NDP energy critic

Signatures on the Cancelled Gas Plants Document July 29, 2011

Kathleen Wynne Liberal Campaign Co-chair

Brad Duguid Minister of Economic Development

Chris Bentley Minister of Energy

Dwight Duncan Minister of Finance

The former Attorney General of Ontario was Christopher Bentley, Liberal, 20072011. The present Attorney General is John Gerretsen. Since many (23?) laws, statutes and regulations required modification to accommodate the provincial governments green energy initiative the legal community would probably have to be involved in some capacity. Imagine my surprise when upon checking the mandate of the Attorney Generals office, I found that the Ministry of the Attorney General delivers and administers a wide range of justice services including:

- providing legal advice to, and conducting litigation on behalf of, all government ministries and many agencies, boards and tribunals; and providing advice on, and drafting, all legislation and regulations.

So my question becomes What was the role of the Attorney Generals Office in the drafting of the Green Energy Act?

Did the politicians that crafted the Green Energy Act choose to ignore the democratic principles upon which this country was built or did they deliberately violate those principles as they manipulated the laws to bring the renewable energy initiative into being? What was the motivating factor - ignorance , contempt, greed, or vengeance?

The mandate of every politically elected official is to protect the fundamental principles upon which our democracy was built. Government ministers, ministries, agencies and municipalities have an ethical duty and legal obligation to protect the health, safety, quality of life and well being of citizens and their properties These fundamental legal entitlements cannot be ignored, compromised or denied by elected officials, staff and/or representatives of provincial and local municipal government bodies, agencies, and or boards. All democratic decisions must pass through this filter or political decisions will allow for some to disenfranchise others. The smallest, the weakest, the youngest are frequently the victims of bad decisions.

The Ministry of the Attorney General is responsible for providing a fair and accessible justice system which reflects the needs of the diverse communities it serves across government and the province. It strives to manage the justice system in an equitable, affordable and accessible way throughout the province. The Attorney General of Ontario, the chief legal adviser to the Queen, is a senior member of the Executive Council of Ontario (or cabinet) and governs the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario - the department responsible for the oversight of the justice system within the province. The Attorney General is an elected Member of Provincial Parliament who is chosen by the premier and appointed by the lieutenant-governor. The Ministry delivers and administers a wide range of justice services including:

1. administering approximately 115 statutes;

2. conducting criminal proceedings throughout Ontario;

3. providing legal advice to, and conducting litigation on behalf of, all government ministries and many agencies, boards and tribunals;

4. providing advice on, and drafting, all legislation and regulations; and

5. coordinating and administering court services throughout Ontario.

The renewable energy initiative of the Liberal government has the Green Energy Act as the foundation upon which it was built. Instead of exercising caution and due diligence the provincial government of Ontario refuses to listen to any criticism of the renewable energy initiative. With the creation of the Green Energy Act, the Ontario government changed laws that protected the health of the citizens of Ontario; changed laws that required an Environmental Assessment to determine the impact of new development on the environment; and changed laws so that the authority of municipal councils has been undermined. The rural citizens have had their municipal councils stripped of their planning rights to control the siting of Industrial Wind Turbines in their communities. Citizens of rural communities have been denied their democratic right to participate in the planning of their community.

The loss of social justice reported by individuals living in the environs of industrial wind turbines (IWTs) is due to the lack of a fair process, the loss of democratic rights, and the associated disempowerment of members of communities forced to host industrial wind turbines. The Green Energy Act is a regressive piece of legislature that deliberately disenfranchises the rural citizens of this province by providing rights to the private for profit - frequently foreign - multinational industrial wind turbine corporations that are denied to the rural citizens.

Since the Ministry of the Attorney General delivers and administers a wide range of justice services including providing advice on, and drafting, all legislation and regulations, were members of the office of the Attorney General part of the planning process to determine which laws would have to be neutered to draft the Green Energy Act and facilitate the renewable energy initiative?

According to some reports the five founding members of the Green Energy Act were George Smitherman, John Gerretsen, Leona Dombrowsky, Donna Cansfield and John Wilkinson. If you look up the academic qualifications of these people you find a solicitor, a financial planner, someone with a BA, and two people with no post-secondary qualifications. The former Attorney General of Ontario during this time was Christopher Bentley, Liberal, 20072011. Since the Ministry of the Attorney General delivers and administers a wide range of justice services including providing legal advice to, and conducting litigation on behalf of, all government ministries and many agencies, boards and tribunals; and providing advice on, and drafting, all legislation and regulations - was the Office of the Attorney General intimately involved in the drafting of the Green Energy Act?

The former Attorney General of Ontario was Christopher Bentley, Liberal, 20072011. If you look at the political career of Christopher Bentley, he was re-elected in the 2007 election and was named Attorney General of Ontario shortly thereafter. In January 2010 he was assigned the additional portfolio of Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.

He retained his seat in the October 2011 provincial election and was named Minister of Energy. Bentley was soon mired in a controversy over the government's decision made during the election campaign to scrap unpopular gas plants being constructed in Mississauga and Oakville - the move was seen as a politically expedient one made to improve the Liberal Party's chances of retaining the 5 ridings it held in the area. The election returned a minority government and the emboldened opposition demanded that Bentley's ministry release all documents related to the decision. Bentley delayed prior to releasing 36,000 pages in September and insisted that all documents had been released. After it became known that there were an additional 20,000 documents Bentley was cited by a rare contempt motion by a legislative committee and was facing a contempt motion of the legislature when McGuinty unexpectedly ended the legislative session by proroguing the legislature on October 15.

Previously, Bentley had widely been seen as Premier Dalton McGuinty's heir apparent but on October 25, 2012, ten days after McGuinty announced his resignation, Bentley announced that he would not be a candidate in the Liberal Party leadership convention being held to choose McGuinty's successor and that he too would be leaving politics. Bentley resigned his seat in the legislature effective February 14, 2013.

If you look at the political careers of these five founding members you have George Smitherman under his term as Minister of Heath we have the eHealth scandal and the ORNGE scandal. Smitherman also served as Deputy Premier to Premier Dalton McGuinty and has been referred to as the enforcer.

As the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Smitherman was responsible for Ontario's Green Energy Act, which was passed in September 2009. The Act encourages investment in green energy production by providing businesses the ability to sell energy produced from renewable sources to the province's electricity grid through a Feed-in-Tariff program. The Green Energy Act has resulted in a series of record-breaking corporate investments in wind and solar energy worth billions of dollars.

Under the Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty George Smitherman held 3 Cabinet Posts

Predecessor Office Successor

Gerry Phillips (Energy)

David Caplan

(Infrastructure) Minister of Energy and Infrastructure 20082009 new merged ministry Gerry Phillips

Elizabeth Witmer Deputy Premier of Ontario Dwight

20062009 Duncan

Tony Clement Minister of Health and Long-Term Care 20032008 David Caplan

On November 8, 2009 Smitherman announced his resignation from the provincial cabinet in order to run for mayor of Toronto. He remained in the legislature as a backbench MPP until January 4, 2010

You Mr John Gerretsen were educated at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, receiving a BA degree in 1964 and an LL.B in 1967. You subsequently worked as a solicitor, serving with Manulife Insurance Company, Toronto from 1969 to 1970.

Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty& Kathleen Wynne held 4 Cabinet Posts

Predecessor Office Successor

Chris Bentley Attorney General of Ontario 2011 Incumbent

Sophia Aggelonitis Minister of Consumer Services 20102011 Margarett Best

Laurel Broten Minister of the Environment 20072010 John Wilkinson

David Young Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing 20032007 Jim Watson

You are the Attorney General of Ontario jgerretsen.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org and assumed that office on October 20, 2011.

Leona Dombrowsky received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1979.

Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty Leona Dombrowsky held 3 Cabinet Posts

Predecessor Office Successor

Kathleen Wynne Minister of Education 2010 '

Steve Peters Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs 2005-2010 Carol Mitchell

Jim Wilson Minister of the Environment 2003-2005 Laurel Broten

On October 23, 2003, Laura Dombrowsky was appointed Minister of the Environment. In this capacity, she was responsible for overseeing changes to the province's water supply system (the safety of which was called into question after a tragic outbreak of e-coli in Walkerton, Ontario). also called for the phasing out of coal-fired electrical generating plants. Dombrowsky's appointment was regarded as a surprise, as it had been widely expected that Jim Bradley would be given the Environment portfolio. Dombrowsky had few if any "green" credentials at the time of her appointment.

On June 29, 2005 Dombrowsky became Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. On January 18, 2010, Dombrowsky was named Minister of Education. On October 6, 2011, Dombrowsky lost her provincial seat to Progressive Conservative Todd Smith.

Donna Cansfield - Prior to entering politics she was a homemaker, raising two children with her husband Bill.

Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty & Kathleen Wynne held 3 Cabinet Posts

Predecessor Office Successor

David Ramsay Minister of Natural Resources 20072010 Linda Jeffrey

Harinder Takhar Minister of Transportation 20062007 Jim Bradley

Dwight Duncan Minister of Energy 20052006 Dwight Duncan

Donna Cansfield was appointed Parliamentary Assistant (PA) to Energy Minister Dwight Duncan on 23 October 2003. She was appointed as Minister of Energy on 11 October 2005 when Duncan was named as Minister of Finance. She was reassigned as Minister of Transportation on 23 May 2006, when Duncan returned to Energy.

After the 2007 election, Cansfield became Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources, where she served until 18 January 2010. Premier McGuinty appointed Cansfield as PA to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing after the January 2010 cabinet shuffle.

In 2011, she was appointed as PA to the Minister of Economic Development and Innovation and in 2012 as PA to the Minister of Finance. In February 2013

as part of the Wynne government, she was appointed as chief government whip.

John Wilkinson, before entering public life, Wilkinson was a financial planner in Stratford. He is a certified financial planner and a founder of Wilkinson & Keller Financial Planning Ltd, he is also a former chair of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.

Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty/Kathleen Wynne held 3 Cabinet Posts

Predecessor Office Successor

John Gerretsen Minister of Environment 2010-2011 Jim Bradley

Dwight Duncan Minister of Revenue 2009-2010 Sophia Aggelonitis

Dalton McGuinty Minister of Research and Innovation 2007-2009 John Milloy

Loss of our democratic rights and freedoms should be of concern to every politician and every person of this country. The New Order will have the private for profit frequently multinational corporations in control of the resources of this once independent nation. Why would senior career politicians in the Liberal Party develop such a regressive piece of legislation? History will record that not one member of the Progressive Conservative Party voted in favor of the Green Energy Act

The Ministry of the Attorney General delivers and administers a wide range of justice services including conducting criminal proceedings throughout

Ontario; providing legal advice to, and conducting litigation on behalf of, all government ministries and many agencies, boards and tribunals; and providing advice on, and drafting, all legislation and regulations.

#1. In your capacity as Attorney General can you provide advice to the Ministry of the Environment on the application of the rules and regulations that apply to the installation of industrial wind turbines in rural communities that are forced to host them?

#2. Can your office mandate the MOE to enforce its REA rules exactly and rigidly on all wind energy projects which have not been approved yet? The current regulations are inadequate but they are the rules that exist now.

Many, perhaps most, of the wind energy projects allocated under the first phase of FIT will not meet MOE REAs existing standards. Mitigation strategies and promises of future data, documents and details plus optimistic rather than worst case scenarios are being accepted as an alternative to strict compliance. This should not be allowed. Rules are rules. Enforce them. Shift the emphasis back to protecting Ontarios rural residents, farm land and environment instead of facilitating wind energy projects.

#3. Please deny Renewable Energy Approval for large wind turbine projects which are not in stringent and complete compliance with the Ministry of the Environments requirements and regulations. Awarding of a Feed-in-Tariff contract must not constitute a guarantee of Renewable Energy Approval. The Renewable Energy Approval applicant must be fully compliant with no exceptions.

#4. Why, instead of rigorously adhering to complete compliance, does the Ministry of the Environment in its Renewable Energy Approval process accept

mitigation strategies, subjective and generalized assessment reports, promises of future studies, noise models without proof of accuracy or adherence to worst case scenarios, and deviations from setback distances?

#5. If large wind turbine projects are not completely and rigorously in compliance with the Ministry of the Environments regulations and requirements then how can the Ministry fulfill its commitment to ensure healthy communities, ecological protection and sustainable development for present and future generations on Ontarians?

#6. Why not, as recommended in The Economist article January 25, 2014 European climate policy worse than useless, current policies are a mess just scrap renewable targets and subsidies?

#7. Denial of the scientific realities of the negative effects of industrial wind turbines will not protect any of us.

Please review the latest independent scientific research on the health and social impacts of IWTs operating near family homes and apply the precautionary principle.

A concerned citizen of Ontario.

Catherine Mitchell

Welland, ON

Additional information

#1 MP's that voted in favour of the Green Energy Act, Bill 150 May 14/09

Leader: Dalton McGuinty did not vote prorogued government and resigned Oct 15, 2012

Actual votes: 59 as follows: Aggelonitis, Sophia /Albanese, Laura /Arthurs, Wayne - Bailing out of re-election/Balkissoon, Bas /Bartolucci, Rick /Bentley, Christopher retired Feb 14, 2013 /Broten, Laurel C. /Brown, Michael A. /Brownell, Jim - Bailing from re-election/ Bryant, Michael QUIT LIBERALS AFTER VOTING FOR GEA/Cansfield, Donna H - ARCHITECT of Green Energy Act./Caplan, David /Carroll, Aileen /Chan, Michael /Colle, Mike /Delaney, Bob /Dickson, Joe /Dombrowsky, Leona ARCHITECT of Green Energy Act /Duguid, Brad /Duncan, Dwight- retired Feb 14, 2013 /Flynn, Kevin Daniel/Fonseca, Peter /Gerretsen, John - ARCHITECT of Green Energy Act /Glinas, France NDP/Gravelle, Michael /Horwath, Andrea NDP LEADER/Hoy, Pat - Bailing on re-election/Jaczek, Helena/Jeffrey, Linda /Johnson, Rick/Kular, Kuldip /Lalonde, Jean-Marc /Leal, Jeff /Levac, Dave/Marchese, Rosario NDP/McMeekin, Ted /McNeely, Phil - Bailing on re-election/Meilleur, Madeleine /Miller, Paul NDP/Milloy, John /Mitchell, Carol/Moridi, Reza /Pendergast, Leeanna/Phillips, Gerry /Ramal, Khalil /Ramsay, David - Bailing on next election/Rinaldi, Lou /Ruprecht, Tony /Sandals, Liz /Smith, Monique ---Bails out of re-election/Smitherman, George - ARCHITECT of Green Energy Act RESIGNS JANUARY 4th/10 Runs For Mayor of Toronto Oct/10----LOSES!/Sousa, Charles /Tabuns, Peter NDP/Takhar, Harinder S. /Van Bommel, Maria - Bailing on re-election/Watson, Jim QUITS to run for MAYOR OF OTTAWA/Wilkinson, John - ARCHITECT of Green Energy Act - /Wynne, Kathleen O. unelected Premier Feb 19,2013/Zimmer, David

Original Group of Five Masterminded the Green Energy Scheme - Smitherman, Gerretsen, Dombrowsky,Cansfield and Wilkinson.

NDP members who voted in favour of the GEA include : Andrea Horwath NDP leader, France Glinas, Rosario Marchese, Paul Miller, Peter Tabuns

Not one MPP from the PC Party voted for the GREEN ENERGY ACT!

Peter Tabuns - former Executive Director of Greenpeace and current Ontario NDP energy and environment critic, Peter leads the charge towards a new energy economy.

France Glinas She is the party's critic for Health and Long-Term Care, and Francophone affairs in the NDP's shadow cabinet. In May 2008, she joined caucus colleagues Michael Prue and Peter Tabuns in calling on the provincial government to crack down on private hydroelectricity marketers.

She has been an outspoken critic of competitive bidding in the province's home care services, and of layoffs affecting nurses in the province's hospitals

Rosario Marchese Following the 2011 General Election, He now is the Caucus Chair, Critic for Urban Transportation, and Critic for Government Services.

Paul Miller Currently in opposition Miller serves in the party's shadow cabinet as critic for several portfolios including Economic Development & Trade and Pensions. He also serves as vice chair of the legislature's Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills.

#2 laws that appear to no longer totally apply to us (that is, only parts of them do) are:

a. The Municipal Act;

b. The Planning Act (which indicates that the Municipal govts are responsible to ensure compliance with Acts such as the EPA);

c. The Environmental Protection Act;

d. The Canada Health Act

CANADIAN HEALTH CARE POLICY

Marginal note: Primary objective of Canadian health care policy

3. It is hereby declared that the primary objective of Canadian health care policy is to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers.; and

d. The Criminal Code of Canada

Mischief

430. (1) Every one commits mischief who willfully

(a) destroys or damages property;

(b) renders property dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective;

(c) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property; or

(d) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property.

Marginal note:Punishment

(2) Every one who commits mischief that causes actual danger to life is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.

Marginal note:Punishment

(3) Every one who commits mischief in relation to property that is a testamentary instrument or the value of which exceeds five thousand dollars

(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years; or

(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Are there any more???....does the Charter of Rights applies to usand if it does NOT...we are in even bigger trouble than we thought!

Added March 23, 2014

(Queens Park) In a speech in the Ontario Legislature on February 25, Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott responded to the McGuinty governments Bill 150, An Act to enact the Green Energy Act, 2009 and to build a green economy, to repeal the Energy Conservation Leadership Act, 2006 and the Energy Efficiency Act and to amend other statutes.

The following is the text of his remarks:

I'm pleased to have this opportunity this afternoon to speak to Bill 150, An Act to enact the Green Energy Act, 2009 and to build a green economy, to repeal the Energy Conservation Leadership Act, 2006 and the Energy Efficiency Act and to amend other statutes.

This bill was introduced in this Legislature by the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure just two days ago. I must say that it is highly unusual that an important piece of legislation such as this, with no less than seven pages of explanatory notes and

65 pages of clauses,

opening up the Electricity Act,

the Ministry of Energy Act,

the Ontario Energy Board Act,

the Clean Water Act,

the Environmental Bill of Rights act,

the Environmental Protection Act,

the Ontario Water Resources Act,

the Cooperative Corporations Act,

the Building Code Act,

the Planning Act,

the Conservation Authorities Act,

the Ministry of Natural Resources Act,

the Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act,

the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act

and the Public Lands Act-

it is highly unusual that an important piece of legislation such as this would be called for second reading debate 24 hours after being introduced for the first time.

The first question that should enter the public's mind is: Why the rush? Why the normal departure from parliamentary tradition of introducing a bill, then allowing the opposition a few days, at least, to consult with interested stakeholders and the public? What details are buried in this bill that the government doesn't want people to know about? What are they trying to hide? ..........