The mayor of St. Clair Township is very disappointed Ontario Power Generation is shutting down the Lambton Generating Station for good and did not contact the municipality before announcing its decommissioning plans Tuesday.
Steve Arnold said OPG and the provincial liberal government have not kept them in the loop.
"Current premier, the last time I spoke with her, she said that Lambton [LGS] was, and the loss of income to the municipality was an unintended consequence of the green energy act," said Arnold. "So that's the type of attitude we've been dealing with and it's been a very frustrating process for all of us."
Arnold said when LGS was fully operational, it accounted for 28% of St. Clair Township's tax base.
"We've always maintained that we wanted to see the demolition plans for the buildings to put that site back to a more of a greenfield site," he said.
Arnold said he thinks the property could be ideal for riverfront condominiums or some other form of housing.
OPG said Tuesday, that continuing to preserve the idle Courtright area facility beyond 2016 for future conversion is no longer economically feasible.
OPG said it will continue to own the site and look for future opportunities to repurpose the property, but the site will no longer be staffed and the property will be cleared of equipment and buildings.
