Save the Bala Falls

Tom Millar has written two excellent articles whcih have been published in the September 2, 2010 issue of Muskoka Today, read them here.

The first article notes that the Township of Muskoka Lakes paid for an 8-page lawyer’s opinion which appears to state that the Green Energy Act does reduce the Township’s ability to stop the proposed project to build a hydro-electric power station at the Bala falls.

• However, this opinion does not apply to this project since the project requires land from the District Municipality of Muskoka, and the Green Energy Act does not provide any right of expropriation (as noted here).
• But Tom Millar’s article goes further, and provides confirmation from the Director of the Environmental Assessment and Approvals Branch of Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment that being a waterpower project, it is separately regulated (a summary of the process is here).

So our misinformed politicians do seem to be mistakenly under the impression that they have no power to stop this proposed project.

But wait, there’s more…

Tom Millar’s second article notes that the Township council did not honour their committment (made in front of hundreds of people at the Town Hall meeting August 14, 2010) to make a statement that they do not support this proposed project. Instead, our politicians simply repeated what they already stated; that they want the province to decide what to do (by requesting that the project be elevated to requiring further study). Our elected politicians should be listening to their electorate and should represent their electorate’s views – and simply state that they do not support this proposed project.

On August 6, 2010 Barrie’s A-Channel news featured a story on our Bala falls. The introduction is at 00:38 to 00:58, our segment is at 11:20 to 13:44, and it is followed by an interview with Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Michael Chan. Sadly the video player does not seem to allow skipping ahead through this hour-long news broadcast.

If clicking the box below doesn’t start the video, perhaps this link will.

Brad Burgess was interviewed by the CBC noon radio show Ontario Today. You can listen to it by clicking this link, and scrolling down to Save Bala Falls, July 13.

Brad had much more to say but was cut from 8 minutes to 4 minutes at the last moment when the proponent changed their minds and decided to spin more blather. Imagine Swift River Energy Ltd. saying that the Bala Falls is not a natural falls; do they think some corporation built them?

This article was published by the Globe and Mail on August 2, 2010 (a pdf copy is here).

The Toronto Star published this article on July 12, 2010 (a pdf copy is here).

Note that you can write a letter to the editor and submit it via:

• E-mail to lettertoed@thestar.ca
• Fax to 416-869-4322
• Mail to One Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1E6.

They note that letters must include full name, address and all phone numbers of sender (daytime, evening, and cellphone). Street names and phone numbers will not be published. The Toronto Star reserves the right to edit letters, which typically run 50-150 words, and they note that they get many more letters than they have space to print.

Here is an excellent article by Jack Hutton, from the October 16, 2008 issue of Muskoka Today (click on the image below).

An article by Jack Hutton.

Jack Hutton’s article in Muskoka Today, October 2, 2008

This article appeared in the Gravenhurst Banner, on September 17, 2008 (click on the image for a larger view).