Editor,
The Escarpment Corridor Alliance held a summit meeting on June 24 at the George Knowles Red Barn near Ravenna. It was noted in a follow up email that the meeting was “making Escarpment history” to gather so many groups, who in their various ways and study of numerous development projects are all working to protect the escarpment around Georgian Bay.
Those of us from Save Georgian Bay joined the meeting to learn about these other projects and share ours. Each of our groups are concerned about the loss of the natural elements of the escarpment, development projects proposed to carve it up, or threaten important water sheds, or impact on a natural area and pathway used for recreational education and experience with our environment. It was frustrating for all of us to see these various attacks on the escarpment. A significant takeaway was that we are not alone in working to protect the escarpment.
As representatives of Save Georgian Bay, we hope you know our mission. We do still find people in our community who don’t know of TransCanada Energy’s proposal to clear cut and tunnel into 500 acres+ of the escarpment and into the Bay to build an energy storage reservoir on the part of the Meaford Tank Range nearest residences.
Carving up the environment is one issue. Another is economic. It is an expensive project that has been characterized by the Independent Electricity System Operator of Ontario as not providing enough ratepayer value. The citizens and utility bill payers in Ontario will pay for this project through taxes and utility bills. That is all of you reading this and all your neighbours in Ontario. TCE claims they will eventually create savings for ratepayers in the amount of $18 per year per Ontario resident. If those savings are accurate, note that the amount is equivalent to each of us switching an old-style light bulb to a new LED bulb. We have asked repeatedly over the last two years, for TCE to show how us how they calculated that savings, and they have not shared the math. The cost projection provided by TCE is from two years ago, pre-COVID. That makes us skeptical the numbers are the same. There is an Oxford University study sharing that the average hydro project runs 92% over the original projection. Perhaps our government or TCE should just buy us all new bulbs and avoid this huge expense burden we will all experience.
TCE has justified the project by saying they can reduce greenhouse gases and achieve the savings mentioned above. Any storage project will offer the same greenhouse savings, in fact more, because most contemporary mass storage solutions are far more efficient and can be built along the power grid. So, we ask “is there justification for TCE to scrape and tunnel into several hundred acres of the escarpment and this pristine bay?” This natural geography is supposed to have the protection of our government as a world biosphere preserve, and pristine Georgian Bay should be protected as well.
We ask you to join Save Georgian Bay and these many other protectors of the escarpment and say, “No!” Send a letter to your provincial and federal representatives asking them to protect the escarpment the bay and our neighbours. Vote for council members who will challenge the project. It is not okay to do damage the environment for this project. This project poses many risks. Stop the attack on the escarpment! Find another way to store energy that is more energy and cost efficient, that is alongside the grid, that enhances the protection of our natural resources, instead of sacrificing them for the benefit of TCE shareholders.
Tom Buck, Save Georgian Bay
