Proponent is now risking flooding Lake Muskoka
The proponent’s current construction activities include their upstream cofferdam obstructing the flow of water from Lake Muskoka through the Bala north channel. To ensure this would not result in flooding Lake Muskoka, the proponent’s approval from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry requires that the upstream cofferdam can be removed on 24 hours notice.
The proponent has apparently decided to renege on this commitment and to not comply with this Condition of their approval, as they have excavated beside the Bala north channel when they had said they would not at this early stage of work. Therefore, the proponent could not now remove their upstream cofferdam, and this risks flooding the thousands of private properties on Lake Muskoka if there was a rain storm or temperatures high enough to melt the ice and snow upstream in the next few weeks.
More detail is in our article entitled: “Proponent’s big lie #8: their non-compliance risks flooding Lake Muskoka“, which you can read here.
Bureaucrats misleading politicians
In our democratic society, our elected provincial politicians are supposed to make decisions representing our concerns.
A problem is that while we can write letters to and e-mail our elected politicians all we want, our elected politicians usually do not see or reply to these communications: instead government bureaucrats do all the communications work for the elected politicians.
Government bureaucrats also convey our concerns to the elected politicians, and this is the problem: the bureaucrats are not disclosing to the politicians that:
- The proponent would deceive the public as treacherously turbulent water would extend outside of their safety boom.
- The public could not be adequately warned of the dangers.
- While it would be unprecedented to build such a dangerous industrial facility as close to docks and in-water recreation, the proponent has not been able to show how, or if, they could operate safely.
While we have detailed our concerns to the government in hundreds of letters, the bureaucrats have summarized all this to elected politicians with the vague seven-word statement that the public’s concerns are that: “the project is in an unsafe location”.
More detail is in our article entitled: “Our politicians are failing us because the bureaucrats are misleading them“, which you can read here.
Murdered in 45 seconds
SaveTheBalaFalls.com realizes that we must be credible, factual, and professional in the hope that our concerns will be accepted by government decision-makers. We realize that some may initially think that the title of our next article is exaggerated, but we believe that after reading the article most will agree the title is well-justified. We look forward to reading your comments, which can be submitted below the article.
We chose that title as the fact is, if someone tipping out of a canoe at Purk’s Place docks ends up inside the upstream safety boom, within 45 seconds the current would quickly carry them downstream to the proposed hydro-electric generating station’s intake, where they would be pulled under water, and – whether wearing a life jacket or not – would be held under water by the hundred tons per second of water rushing past them, and they would drown.
More detail is in our article entitled: “Murdered in 45 seconds“, which you can read here. As for all our articles, you can submit comments below the article (the comments are shown after we review them to ensure they aren’t spam).