2008 was a year marked by major progress in CFRE’s efforts to bring clean and safe renewable energy to the forefront of the public’s attention. At the same time we kept up our information campaign on the health and economic effects of nuclear and fossil-fired energy generation, as we are committed to in our mission statement.

With the controversy about the high regulatory tritium level for Ontario’s drinking water breaking out in the open again the Coordinator accepted an invitation from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to attend an information and discussion meeting with international expert input in Ottawa the first week of 2008. Travelling in his hybrid-electric Prius, it was a harrowing 7-hour drive through thick fog almost the whole distance, but worthwhile to ask questions and provide comments. He extended his stay to make a submission at a CNSC hearing on the operating license renewal for the Darlington nuclear station which has a Tritium Recovery Facility serving all reactor facilities in Ontario. Long-time CFRE members in Ottawa were kind enough to offer comfortable accommodation with meals.

Our dedicated board members, as well as volunteers, came out on a wintry weekend to staff CFRE’s information display at the Organic Conference at Guelph University, getting favourable responses.

Working together with other groups and organizations is a beneficial strategy and to that end the Coordinator attended a Solar Workshop by the Community Renewable Energy Waterloo (CREW) group held in Kitchener, where a newly-formed initiative, Guelph Solar, reported on their community project with residents coming together to install PV and solar water systems on their roofs.

Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) is a vibrant umbrella organization which CFRE joined shortly after its’ founding and has benefited from this cooperation.

Having gained valuable insight from working on tritium issues, CFRE accepted an invitation from the Ontario Drinking Water Advisory Council (ODWAC) to make a submission at their hearing in March, calling, together with numerous other organizations, for an immediate lowering of the permissible level of tritium in drinking water from 7000 Bq/l to 100 Bq/l because of new evidence of harmful effects, especially on woman and infants. At year’s end we had no information on their decision!

The CNSC decided, after receiving strong signals of public concern regarding the Bruce Power proposal to build new reactors and the Ontario Power Generator’s plan to blast two deep holes near the Lake Huron shoreline to store radioactive waste, to ask the Environment Minister to assess these plans through a Review Panel Environmental Assessment. The CFRE board decided to register as participants in the first stage requiring comments on the draft guidelines and draft Terms of Reference. The Coordinator worked through the hefty documents and arranged two public information meetings in Bruce County. CFRE was present with elaborate displays at the Earth Day event in Downsview and at the 2-day Windfall Eco-Festival in Newmarket.

A high-level event in Toronto titled “Energy 2100- Making the Lakes Great” was another chance for the Coordinator to take in expert testimony and to file comments while taking the opportunity to make contact with Ministers and government officials.

The highlight of the year was, as usual, our Annual General Meeting coupled with a high-profile workshop. It was a happy celebration of our member’s successes, reporting on their positive experiences installing and operating their solar power systems. Jen Gaudette from the Clean Air Foundation gave us an insight into government programs and incentives. At the business session we were able to fill three board positions which had been vacant and we also established four committees to lighten the workload of the Coordinator.

The following week the Coordinator headed to Ottawa again for an advisory group meeting of non-government organizations with the CNSC and got the chance to meet the new President appointed by the government after they fired Linda Keen. From there he traveled to a meeting of other organizations in Toronto to exchange information on the Panel Review Assessments.

Next stop was Kingston, with the World Wind Energy Symposium bringing in representatives from over sixty nations. The main focus was on Community Power and together with other CFRE members we heard of many successful projects in other countries like Germany, Denmark and Spain. Four government ministers, including newly-appointed Energy Minister George Smitherman, were on hand to give speeches.

In July it was Eastern Ontario again to display at the “Art of Being Green” Festival in Lanark with the help of our off-grid member from Killaloe and our Vice-President. There we made contact with a new organization because of the uranium mining controversy on nearby Native territory. They felt that their mission was similar to ours and so joined CFRE.

We have a number of organizations as members and were also asked to represent Great Lakes United (GLU) and the Provincial Council of Women of Ontario (PCWO) in the comments provided on the draft documents for the two Review Panel EA’s. Those comments were submitted by the June deadline. In the second part of the Bruce Power EA the CFRE board decided to again apply for participant status and funding, which was granted. So we will be able to call on independent experts to prepare critiques of the proponent’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and submit them to the panel. We did not seek participant status in the OPG Deep Geological Repository (DGR) panel review because of short- staffing.

After the summer’s hectic schedule the Coordinator took time off in September to attend class- and family-reunions in Germany and to assess the latest developments in the renewable energy field there and in Portugal. In the meantime, board members staffed a display at the yearly Feast of Fields Festival and another member presented a CFRE submission on the Pickering licence renewal to the CNSC.

The OSEA Annual General Meeting was held at the beginning of November and the Coordinator represented CFRE there and heard about the efforts being made to have the government introduce a “Green Energy Act”.

At a symposium sponsored by the Community Foundation Grey- Bruce in Collingwood with Stephen Lewis as keynote speaker CFRE was recognized with an Enviro Appreciation certificate “for showing advancement in the environmental field through renewable energy”.

The Coordinator and member Tim Spencer attended an information meeting on the performance of the Bruce Power reactors by CNSC staff in Kincardine to ask questions and provide comments.

Another highlight was the two-day Canadian Solar Industry Convention in Toronto in December, with a large exhibition and interesting workshops and expert panels. Being in the GTA already the coordinator travelled to Ajax to present a CFRE submission on the Screening EA to refurbish the Pickering B reactors, getting close to their expected life-span. Together with almost twenty presenters we called for the retirement of these dangerous aging reactors.

Well, it was a full year of active engagement with many accomplishments, thanks to our directors and many a volunteer. We held eleven board meetings via conference call and were able to get our quarterly newsletters out on schedule, receiving many compliments. Thank you to all those additional members who responded to our appeal to receive their newsletters electronically, helping us save paper and postage. The year ahead has many challenges waiting and with your help we are going to address them!

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