A community forum to demand transparent planning GE's future in Peterborough

GE Vernova (former GE) is planning to demolish most of its remaining buildings at 107 Park Street North, Peterborough – with no regard for community concerns.

While certain city councillors are calling for accountability, City Council's overall position at the end of the day is:

• We don't know what's going on
• We have little say in the matter anyway
• We trust – and the public should too - that GE and the Ontario's Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks will do the right thing

In fact, GE and the Ministry are holding private discussions and have shared nothing to alleviate public concerns about the demolition.
Peterborough can't afford the questionable outcome that a passive Council and a secretive Ministry are bound to deliver.

Our half-day event will feature Town of Widows (2019), a film about workers and their loved ones demanding that government hold GE to account for its decades-long exposure of employees to countless harmful – even deadly - chemicals. The film still rings true today – as Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board continues to deny injured workers a fair hearing.

The film also sets the stage for us to consider GE's defiant refusal to accept responsibility for contaminating vast tracts of land in the heart of the city, for spoiling the groundwater beneath its neighbours' homes, and for polluting the Otonabee River and Rice Lake. And so far, no government has ordered GE to clean up any of these environmental disasters.

We have questions. For instance,

What's to ensure that GE's demolition won't just add to our problems?

What's needed for us trust that the Ministry will protect us and the environment?

Good neighbours deserve answers.

With help from attendees, our expert panel will sharpen questions for GE and the Ministry and will develop strategies to get answers.

Panelists include:

• Natasha Luckhardt, director/producer of Town of Widows
• Sue James, GE retiree, who recently championed the installation of "A Place to Remember" – a marble statue to recognize workers in Peterborough who died of occupational disease
• Jacqueline Wilson, Staff Lawyer, Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA)
• And others!