Save the Bala Falls

Doug Ford spoke in Bala on February 27, 2018 when he was campaigning for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. The video is on Facebook here, a copy is here, and the full transcript is below …

Friends, I’m here today in Bala, speaking with local residents, about the impact of this Liberal government’s disastrous, disastrous plans to put a privately-owned green energy power plant. I’ve spoken to numerous residents, local residents, who have serious concerns with this development.

Friends, what I’m seeing here today is extremely, extremely troubling. This location is critical to the entire Muskoka watershed, a Canadian and economic treasure. It is troubling to see the Liberal government has forced this project on the local community that is firmly against it.

And I see this no matter where I go in Ontario, the local people, the grassroots people, don’t have a say. My government is going to listen to the local people, the grassroots people. It’s not about the political insiders and the establishment. The good people of this region do not want this project, and it’s not in the public interest. This is not about green energy, we can talk about this green energy file all day long. This is about the surplus energy being constructed on public land for private profit. Friends, we have a lot of smart people in this area right now, looking at these energy policies. Look into these policies, it’s about making money. That’s what this is all about. It’s not about getting more green energy, that’s a farce because we are all environmentally friendly. I’m environmentally friendly, but it comes down to making money.

The Township of Muskoka calls itself an unwilling host, this situation is completely unacceptable, I met some local Councillors, local representatives here today. Projects like Bala and privatizing hydro cost this province and taxpayers billions of dollars. And they always worry about where they’re getting money from, if, again, the energy policies are costing billions of dollars, for very few people, not the grassroots people.

Projects like this, these are why people of Ontario are being forced to choose between heating and eating.

As my team has travelled across Ontario, there’s people, truly, choosing between paying their hydro bills and putting food on their table.

My friends, this project is another example of a long list of Liberal pet projects that would cost this province dearly. Projects like this are hurting our province and costing taxpayers billions of dollars, all to benefit the political insiders, the political elites that have been running this province for years.

Local residents have been kept in the dark, that’s not uncommon for this government is to keep everything a secret, portray that they’re something that they aren’t. Kathleen Wynne preaches about the environment, but then she gets her buddies making billions of dollars, which is unacceptable.

And the other thing we’re going to look into, we going to look into who is making donations to whose campaigns, and you connect the dots. And I’m sure that when you connect the dots, we’ll come up with the answer.

We have no idea what the environmental impacts of this project will be. The province’s own scientific experts are recommending the opposite of what’s happening here in Muskoka. The experts are telling the government not to choke the Muskoka watershed, and do not over-develop it.

But for some reason, the province is doing the exact opposite, go back to my earlier comments why they’re doing the opposite.

This tells me there’s a serious problem here. This project stinks of political interest and insider deals. When I am Premier, I want to know who is benefitting from this project and at what cost to local residents and the local environment.

The public deserves to know how much money the people behind this project are making, and the total cost of this project that, again, has been a big secret. Ontarians deserve to know who has been influenced, and we’ll get down to the bottom of who is being influenced.

As Premier, I will conduct a full investigation into this project, and make sure the local residents are armed with the facts. As Premier I will get answers, and I can assure you, I will get answers. I will drill down and find out who is part of the big scam. And I’m the only candidate, the only candidate that will fight for this community. Every community across Ontario is facing similar projects, and as Premier I will clean up this mess.

My friends, I thank you for coming today. We’re known to make sure, what we say we’re going to do, we going to do.

And as sure as I’m standing here, I’m going to come back, and each and every one of you can hold me accountable. I will be back here in the same spot, and we’re going to stop this project.

Over the past months, we have received many comments about the proponent destroying most of a large inscribed boulder which was in the way of their proposed project. More recently, we’ve received comments about what the proponent has now done with some of the pieces from that boulder, here’s one that conveys many of the concerns:

I understand that as part of their construction work, the proponent had to destroy most of a large inscribed boulder that was in their way. And that someone that works for the proponent somehow thought that leaving a piece of this boulder on a mountain in Africa would be a good idea, apparently thinking this would somehow honour the memory.

This is as misguided as thinking that leaving your murdered uncle’s arm in a foreign country he’d never been to would honour his memory, just because “it would always be there”. It confounds the mind, Africa has nothing to do with Bala. The proponent so misunderstands the damage they are doing to Bala’s history that they don’t realize this makes it worse.

This is a disgusting indignity and shows how out of touch the proponent is with the inexcusable and permanent damage they are doing to Bala’s beauty and cultural heritage. Pouring concrete on the bedrock of the falls is sacrilegious, and now it churns my gut that the proponent thinks they are somehow helping by leaving an important part of Bala’s history in some foreign country that has nothing to do with Bala. The proponent has shown yet again that in every way, they completely don’t understand what they are doing.

This makes me sick.

 

In 2010 the Ministry of the Environment required the proponent to provide an Economic Impact Study for the proposed hydro-electric generating station at the Bala falls.

Our articles here and here note that the study had major flaws, and that it therefore reached an unjustified conclusion (a copy of the study is here).

For example, page 29 of the study notes: “The direct employment impact from construction in Muskoka District is 45 jobs and the total employment impact for Ontario is 81 jobs with 65 of those in Muskoka District. Local spending in Muskoka District is estimated to be $10.8 million generating an additional $5.5 million in GDP in the region and $7.0 million in Ontario.” We challenge the proponent to provide any evidence of this, it certainly isn’t apparent looking at the few workers on-site, many of which were laid-off a week or so ago.

Anyone can come to Bala and park for free, and sit in the park and have a picnic lunch for free – there are even three sets of public washrooms available for free.

You can climb on the rocks and wade in the water for free, as these people below are at the base of the Bala north falls. This is what creates world-class, unique, and classic Canadian memories.

You can go fishing for free. And if you don’t have a fishing license, you can get that at the nearby bait shop, where you can also rent a canoe or kayak. And there are restaurants, stores, and shops – tourism is an important part of Bala’s economy.

But all this would be ruined by the proposed hydro-electric generating station at the Bala falls. The bait shop’s docks would be too dangerous to use. The fast water from Lake Muskoka would be brought hundreds of feet closer to the above popular in-water recreational area, making it too dangerous to use. The accessible and public shoreline seen here would either be used, or be made too dangerous to use, by the proposed generating station. 94% of the water from both falls would be diverted into the proposed generating station, drying-up both falls – tourists won’t come to see the dry rocks where the falls used to be.

The proponent said they would not impact the existing in-water recreation, but they lied.

The proponent said their generating station would not be higher than the level of the road, but they lied, as it would actually tower three storeys above the road and six storeys above the Moon River.

Instead of Bala being for everyone, the proposed project would make Bala for no one.

One of the drivers of Bala’s economy is that visitors to Bala can rent canoes and kayaks at Purk’s Place.

The most likely time for anyone to fall or tip out of a canoe or kayak is at the docks when when they are getting into or out of it. In Bala, this would be right at the upstream safety boom and the intake for the proposed hydro-electric generating station would be just 55 m downstream.

The proponent’s own flow simulation shows that the water would be flowing at about 1.2 m/s from the docks to their proposed intake. And every second, tons of water would be flowing into their 35′-deep intake.

At 1.2 m/s it would take only 45 seconds for someone falling in the water at the upstream safety boom to be carried by the current to the proposed intake. And with tons of water being drawn down and in to the proposed intake every second, anyone – regardless of swimming ability or whether they’re wearing a life jacket or not – would be held underwater against the intake trash rack, and they would drown. There would not be an Operator in the proposed generating station, and it would not have an “emergency stop” button on the outside either.

Just 45 seconds from falling in the water to being drowned. That would not be an accident, that would be the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change not realizing that their mandate of protecting the environment includes protecting human life (click on the graphic below for a larger view).

Transport Canada and the MNRF have a “Point of No Return” calculation for how far upstream from a hazard the upstream safety boom should be. Based on this calculation, in early 2011 the MNRF’s Public Safety Measures Plan for the Bala recommended that the upstream safety boom in the Bala north channel be relocated farther upstream, which Transport Canada approved in late 2011 and which was subsequently done.

As detailed here, the Point of No Return calculation shows that the construction of the proposed generating station requires that the upstream safety boom be relocated still farther upstream.

However, even though the Point of No Return calculation in the Public Safety Measures Plan for the Bala dams does not take into account the increased dangers due to the construction of the proposed hydro-electric generating station at the Bala falls, both Transport Canada and the MNRF have stated the upstream safety would not need to be relocated farther upstream. So they are both complicit in there not being enough time for someone somehow being downstream of the upstream safety boom to rescue themselves. So “Murdered in 45 seconds” is their decision.

You might think the upstream safety boom would be helpful to a canoe or kayak, to keep it from entering the danger area. What actually happens is due to the current, your canoe/kayak ends up parallel along the safety boom and tips slightly sideways as the downstream side rides up onto the safety boom due to the current. You can’t paddle on the downstream side because the 16″-diameter safety boom is there and that side is high. And if you paddle on the upstream side you just turn yourself into the safety boom and don’t go anywhere. As you realize how precarious your situation is, what would happen if you tip – and all you can see the the danger downstream as you’re above the safety boom – panic is likely.

You might think, anyone falling in the water should just hang on to the safety boom. There are many problems:

• The safety boom is designed for high visibility and to prevent large boats from travelling over them. It is not designed for people to hang on to them.
• For example, the safety boom is required to extend at least 12″ above the water. As a result, the floats are at least 16″ in diameter, so holding on to one would be like hugging a sideways barrel way above you while having to keep your face above water. And the safety boom is made of slippery plastic and there’s nothing to hold on to. Children’s and many adult’s arms would not be long enough to wrap around the safety boom if they could even get close enough, as they’d be fighting the current.
• The safety boom is so high, that combined with the current, it would cause a canoe or kayak to capsize. This was the cause of the drowning of 19-year-old Victoria Cunningham at the Isle-Maligne hydro-electric generating station near Alma, Quebec in 2008. The canoe she was in was capsized by the upstream safety boom and the current, and she was unable to hang on to the safety boom.
• The safety boom is supposed to be a last line of defence, warning signs are supposed to be upstream of a safety boom, but due to land ownership restrictions in Bala, adequate warning signage could not be installed.

So far we know that the:

• Treacherously turbulent water would extend far outside of the downstream safety boom, deceiving people into thinking the water there would be safe: when it actually would be deadly.
• Proponent refuses to disclose how, or if, they could operate their proposed generating station safely, even though it would be unprecedented to build a hydro-electric generating station as close to docks and in-water recreation.
• Proponent has stated they would not warn the public before starting operation (even though the MNRF requires them to provide such warning), and such warning would be unreliable anyways as the frequent trains passing by would mask the sound.
• Currently, there is almost no flow in the Bala north channel during the summer, so falling out of a canoe there (or holding the Bala regatta just upstream of it, or Scuba diving off Diver’s Point) is safe. As the proposed generating station would change all this, so most flow would be through the Bala north channel, the proponent has not figured out how, or if, their proposed project could be operated safely.
• Proponent would build a portage right beside their proposed generating station, encouraging people to canoe through the treacherously turbulent water which would extend outside of the downstream safety boom.

It is as if the government is saying to the proponent: “If you want to be stupid enough to build it, we’ll be stupid enough to approve it”.