Home

Township Council Meeting

Please attend the Township Council meeting Tuesday August 24, 2010 at 9:00 am (in Port Carling, at the Municipal offices) as the proponent is scheduled to delegate at 10:30 am, and Council is also to consider a resolution about this proposed project (item 10 b in the agenda).


What is All This About

As a result of a process initiated by Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources, there has been a proposal to build a hydro-electric generating station at the north Bala falls.

While we all agree that water power is an excellent source of energy for generating electricity, the proposal would:

  • Make hundreds of feet of the only public shoreline in the area too dangerous for existing recreational activities, this would be a terrible loss to locals and visitors.
  • Locate the power station’s 45′-deep, 30′-wide water intake just downstream from the town docks, this would create a huge danger to all users of the town docks, as well as the recreational activities upstream.
  • Reduce the falls to a trickle year-round, which would destroy what makes Bala unique.
  • Require a 33′-wide poured-concrete building (perhaps with rocks piled up the side) which would rise 18′ above the Moon River, and this would be right at the falls. And the proponent refuses to provide a rendering of the structure showing the required components such as the facility’s entrance door or exhaust fan openings.
  • Negatively affect tourism and therefore the local economy, yet the proponent has not seriously investigated this.

We have detailed our concerns, yet in response the proponent only repeats the evasive information in their environmental screening report.

“Stop The Power Plant” Lawn Signs

Please pick up your own Stop the Power Plant lawn sign at Gidley Real Estate or Purks Place. Please note that you need to place these on your own property, at least three feet in from the property line.

Some Recent Developments of the War So Far

See also “Recent Articles”, towards the top of the column to the right.

June 30, 2010
Our elected local Mayors and Councillors have the power to Save The Bala Falls by not allowing land owned by the District of Muskoka to be used for this proposed power station. We expect this to be a major issue for the municipal elections October 25, 2010 (less than 90 days from now!).

Please contact your local representatives to let them know you will only vote to be represented by someone who is committed to requiring a broader review of the options available. Click for contact information for Township Council (ward map is here) and District Council, and the declared Township candidates.

June 15, 2010
We have learned from Ontario’s Office of the Integrity Commissioner’s web site that the proponent has retained a well-connected Toronto- and Ottawa-based lobbying firm to promote their proposed project to build a hydro-electric generating station at the Bala Falls.

The lobbyist has reported that they would be contacting Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs), and the following:

  • Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure
  • Ministry of Economic Development and Trade
  • Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure
  • Ministry of Finance
  • Ministry of Natural Resources
  • Ministry of the Environment
  • Office of the Premier
  • Cabinet Office
  • Ontario Realty Corporation

As this lobbying registration was done just in the last few months, rather than providing on-going advice, this lobbying effort is obviously to specifically prevent the proposed project from being elevated to an Individual Environment Assessment.

That the proponent felt it necessary to go to this additional expense, and that the Ministry of the Environment has required a 60-day period for additional study shows that the public has successfully raised and made known issues of significant concern. Bravo for us.

That the proponent is resorting to politics to get their approval, rather than simply and clearly responding to the many problems raised shows that our concerns are well-founded and that we need to continue to raise awareness of the safety and economic disasters the proposed project would create.

May 14, 2010
The Ministry of the Envrionment has requested the proponent to “conduct further study with respect to navigation matters and economic impacts” as “there are outstanding concerns that have not been adequately addressed”. The Director of the Environmental Assessment and Approvals Branch will then “continue to review the issues raised” and will then make a decision on the elevation requests made.

April 19,2010
We have carefully read the proponent’s responses to the huge number of elevation requests that the community has sent as a result of the proponent’s environmental screening report.

These responses, and the individual meetings requested by the proponent, have provided no new information, and simply repeat the evasive responses the proponent has previously provided.

More detail is here and here.

April 1, 2010

  1. Last month the proponent held individual meetings with some members of the public who submitted requests to have the proposed project to ruin and eliminate the Bala Falls elevated (did we mention that a for-profit company would siphon out any revenue, and make most of the usable public shoreline too dangerous for access or recreation). Such an elevation would hopefully compel the proponent to finally address the many safety, economic and other major issues they have so far avoided (even though their 600-page environmental screening report should have addressed these).
  2. The proponent will apparently be producing minutes of these meetings, and will forward these individually to the meeting attendees, with a copy to the Ministry of the Environment.
  3. The proponent has begun to respond to the points raised in our letters which were submitted by November 27, 2009. These responses, as have the individual meetings, show that the proponent has no new information to provide, and that our concerns about safety, the loss of public access to this public resource, noise, tourism, and the local economy are well-founded, as they have not provided any credible arguments or facts supporting their assertions.
  4. The Ministry of the Environment has begun to e-mail form letters to some people who requested elevations. The form letters note that the elevation requests have been forwarded to the proponent, who can respond with information to the Ministry of the Environment who will use this in considering the elevation requests.
  5. When the proponent informs the Ministry of the Environment that all information responding to the elevation requests has been submitted to the Ministry of the Environment, then the Ministry’s 45-day review period will apparently begin.

February 10, 2010

  1. The Ministry of the Environment reports that it is taking them much longer than they expected to acknowledge receipt of the letters we all sent in by November 27, 2009. The Ministry notes that they are still working on this, and that if they have a street address for you, they will mail you a letter. If they only have your e-mail address, they will e-mail you a letter.
  2. The proponent is offering to meet one-on-one with people who submitted an elevation request.
    • Many people report they feel intimidated by this, are concerned how the results of the meeting would be reported to the Ministry of the Environment, have not yet had it clearly presented how many proponent representatives would be at these meetings, and would like to know whether any new information will be presented.
    • You should e-mail these concerns to the proponent. If you’d be more comfortable with some support, let them know this, and we’ll try to arrange someone to attend with you.
  3. If you cannot or would prefer to not attend the meeting, let the proponent know why, and that you would like to receive by e-mail whatever information would have been presented in the meeting.
  4. Please forward a copy of any communication to us, at info@SaveTheBalaFalls.com

December 25, 2009
We have been trying to get an update from the Ministry of the Environment, on their evaluation of comments submitted to the environmental screening report, but so far they have not returned our calls. The Gravenhurst Banner recently wrote a good update article.

November 30, 2009
We Have Responded to the Environmental Screening Report

Thank you all for the huge letter-writing support responding to the proponent’s environmental screening report. These letters were passionate, from the heart, factual, and many written despite serious personal and family difficulties.

We are very pleased that our community response was fantastic – it would have been a shame had the proponent worked the system to their advantage. But we feel that we were on top of the situation, understood what was required, and had the full and wonderful support of the community.

Submission
As noted here, we submitted two documents.

  • From input we received from the community, we produced a Technical Report which responded to the detail of the proposed project, as described in the proponent’s environmental screening report.
  • We also had input from someone knowledgable in the environmental assessment and site selection process and also from a lawyer, this resulted in a Policy Report.

Next
We understand the next steps are:

  • The Ministry of the Environment will assign a case officer to this project, who will respond to each submission received to confirm receipt, and provide summary information on the next steps and their contact details.
  • The Ministry of the Environment then has 45 days to review the input (which is hundreds of pages, some of it very detailed), solicit clarification or additional information from the proponent, and provide a recommendation package to the Director of the Environmental Assessment and Approvals Branch of the Ministry of the Environment.
  • The Director will then make a decision. The options are described in Section B.4.1.1 of this document. If this decision is not to elevate the project to requiring an Individual Environmental Assessment (this is the only first step to getting this project stopped), we can appeal to the Minister of the Environment, and there may be other options as well.
  • Since this is a provincial process, it would help if you would contact your local member of provincial parliament (you can find their contact information here, or search for your MPP by your postal code here). Let them know how important this is, and the many reasons (even more) the project needs to be examined in more detail through the Individual Environmental Assessment process.

Questions and Comments
If you have any questions, please e-mail us at info@SaveTheBalaFalls.com. To leave a comment on this web site, click on Guests (above) and leave a Reply.

Volunteer
If you would like to help, please fill out the information here, then click on the Send button at the bottom of that page.