Letter to the Editor
Editor,
I am sharing this letter that I originally sent out to John Mikkelsen of TC Energy and copied our Mayor Barb Clumpus on Monday, October 12, 2020. I have not received any response from either to date. I can understand why TC Energy would not respond but I would expect that our Mayor should.
Regardless of whether our elected officials support/sit on the fence/or oppose this project I would think it should be of utmost importance to them that the correct information be shared with the community. The constituents of this community deserve the truth. Why was this withheld from us?
Hello Mr. Mikkelsen,
I am reaching out today for you to provide clarity on something that has been bothering me for some time now. With yet another holiday celebration falling to the wayside due to COVID-19, I have some idle time on my hands to address this.
Attached is the original project proposal that you shared with the Meaford community and beyond (TC Energy Meaford Independent ad September 12, 2019). I personally did not know anything about the proposal at the time and did not see this article published in the local paper.
I have also attached your slide deck of a presentation you made to the Municipality (CAO Robert Armstrong/Mayor Barb Clumpus/Treasurer) obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The date of this presentation deck and the meeting date is February 27, 2019.
I would like to draw your attention to the site plan contained in each submission. Your presentation to the Municipality on February 27, 2019 contains the site plan showing the location of the reservoir above my community. This remains as the current location proposed (this is now confirmed as a partially excavated reservoir with an approximate 20m high embankment dam).
The site plan included in the local paper publication on September 12, 2019 shows the reservoir located further north of Blackpoint and is clear of all the neighbouring communities. The depiction of the base exclusion area is clear. Other promotional materials shared have shown this as the site plan. I selected this example as it is dated and downloaded from the TCE website.
At the time that you “shared” this with the community on September 12, 2019, you had already been informed (assuming many months before as you had proposed a different location to the Municipality earlier that year) that the DND would not allow you to use that location for the project as it interfered with its training operations (confirmed by many including Alex Ruff).
Why would you and TC Energy present this site plan to the community and purposely mislead the public? Salt on the wound you continue to promote it as an “isolated” area by excluding our houses on your post installation presentation boards at your town halls and on your updated “flyover” presentations.
You speak of trust, transparency and meaningful consultation. I find that a hard pill to swallow.
I look forward to your response. I would also ask our Mayor, Barb Clumpus (copied here), why this discrepancy was not corrected by the Municipality when TCE issued the notice. Seems pretty important to me.
Regards, Joanne Devaney
Resident “IMPACT ZONE”
Meaford
