e-Newsletter – January 20, 2017

Summary
If you have not yet sent your e-mail to the Premier or asked your family, friends and neighbours to send theirs, these need to be sent before Tuesday next week (January 24, 2017).

If you have sent your e-mail but didn’t receive a reply from sending us a copy, please send a copy to info@SaveTheBalaFalls.com. We need copies of e-mails sent so we can be sure they are hand-delivered.
 

Detail
The best way to show the Premier our continuing strong concern is by the number of people that send an e-mail. Now is the time to ask your family, friends, and neighbours to each send an e-mail.

So, if you have not yet sent the e-mail explained in our previous e-Newsletter:

1. Send it before Tuesday January 24, 2017.
    
2. We need as many people sending e-mails as possible; each member of your family separately, your Muskoka friends and neighbours, anybody that wants to be sure that unsuspecting tourists are not drowned.
    
3. Follow-up with a phone call to each to remind them their e-mail needs to be sent by Tuesday.
    
4. Send each e-mail to:
   1. The Premier, at KWynne.mpp@liberal.ola.org, (click right now to get that started)
   2. With a copy to MPP Norm Miller at Norm.Miller@pc.ola.org
   3. And copy your home MPP (addresses are here)
   4. And copy info@SaveTheBalaFalls.com – we will print and hand-deliver these
       
5. Each e-mail can be just a sentence or two. In addition to "Dear Premier" and your name and home address, any one of the following is all you need:
   1. The proponent for the proposed Bala generating station would not comply with their environmental approval, as their own information shows they would make the Moon River dangerous outside of their downstream safety boom. Please reply telling me how you would ensure the proponent would not be allowed to renege on such an important public safety commitment.
       
   2. The MNRF’s safety procedures require that the public be warned before flow is increased to the Moon River, but the proponent for the proposed Bala generating station has stated they would not provide this warning. Please reply telling me how you would ensure – and not just "expect" – that they would comply with the MNRF’s safety procedures.
       
   3. The proponent for the proposed Bala generating station has already shown their plans are unacceptably dangerous, so I request the proponent be required to show how they would operate safely before any further approvals are provided. Please reply whether you agree with this requirement.
       
   4. Transport Canada’s safety procedures require that the safety boom upstream of the proposed Bala generating station be relocated farther upstream, but this would prevent Purk’s Place from renting boats. Please reply whether you will require this issue to be resolved before any further approvals are issued.
       
   5. Transport Canada’s mandate does not include the Moon River, so they have not assessed the dangers that would be created downstream by the proposed Bala generating station. The provincial Ministries therefore do not have any authoritative input on the public safety dangers that would be created. I request that before any further approvals are issued, the proponent be required to show how they would operate their proposed station safely. Please reply whether you agree with this requirement.
       
   6. I understand and agree with the MNRF’s "Stay Clear, Stay Safe" educational campaign. But the proponent’s own information shows their proposed generating station at the Bala falls would make the water dangerous more than 300′ from their station, both outside of the downstream safety boom and in front of people’s private docks. Please reply how the public in these locations would be informed of the dangers.
       

   Phone a few people now, explain the need for them to send an e-mail, forward this e-mail to them, and phone them again in a day or two to follow-up.
    

Premier’s New Year’s Levee
Each year, the Premier holds a New Year’s Levee with federal MP Rob Oliphant, with whom she shares the Don Valley West constituency. Several of our supporters attended so that we could have a moment to talk directly with the Premier about the unaddressed concerns for the proposed hydro-electric generating station at the Bala falls.

You can see here a photograph of Mitchell Shnier spending his entire time with the Premier talking, and here is the letter hand-delivered to the Premier.
 

Media contacts
If you have any direct media contacts, please e-mail us at info@SaveTheBalaFalls.com, we’re always interested in getting our message out to more people.