I Don't Want Any NIMBY's Around Here!

You all know what a NIMBY is, right?

NIMBY is an acronym for Not In My Back Yard.

They are the people that don't want a thing built near where they live, regardless of the overall good. You know, things like jails, sewage treatment plants, Meth Clinics, etc.

I've witnessed protests over a group home for the Mentally Challenged. No guff.

Several years ago, when an area Municipality was planning a landfill in a rural area, it bought all the houses around it, and sat on them until the landfill was in place. It then offered them for sale. The purchasers knew full well that their neighbor would be a landfill. No way they could complain then.

I've written about it before.

But this one really gets my goat.

Hydro Generating Stations are a needed item because, well, we use a lot of electricity.

We need to close down the coal fired plants. Coal bad.

Nuclear has stigma.

So the best option is gas fired.

And you build it close to where you need it. Makes sense, right?

A number of years ago, a gas fired plant was proposed for Milton, Ontario, near Toronto and Canada's fastest growing community. Made sense, right?

Well, a bunch of NIMBY's stood up and shouted, signs were put up, politicians called, petetions signed and a general hullabaloo went out.

No, way, not in Milton.

So they built the plant across the road, in Halton Hills. They welcomed the tax money.

I kid you not.

In the picture on the right, the road in the bottom left is the border between the two towns.

Read more here.

Fast forward to a few months ago. (Fast forward to the past? Bear with me...)

During the recent election, NIMBY's in a Mississauga riding badgered the politicians to stop the already started gas fired generating station in thier neighbourhood.

A plant that had already gone through all the approval processes, studies, public consultations and miles of red tape to get it off the ground. That took years.

Well, one of the Candidates that promised to stop the already started construction actually got elected. And the constituents are holding him to his promise.

So a multibillion dollar project is currently sitting almost idle.

Two things remain:

• The need for the plant
• The bill

Its not like moving the piano.

The Government can't just say to the Contractor, "Our bad. We want you to put it over there---->"

Contracts were entered into, and have to be paid, whether it gets built there or not.

And the plant still needs to be built somewhere. And that takes years to set up.

In my mind there are three solutions:

• Cancel the project, move it elsewhere at a cost of several billion dollars to all of the taxpayers
  
• Cancel the project, move it elsewhere and split the cost between all the NIMBY's
• Buy all the NIMBY's houses, and move them elsewhere.
  

The first solution is possible.

The second solution would be karma.

The last solution is probably the most practical, least expensive, and therefore least likely.

DJW

Just don't move the NIMBY's to my neighbourhood.