Dear Editor,
I’d like to correct another error Save Georgian Bay repeats in your IAAC Review coverage (March 9) if I may.
There are no Municipalities in Ontario that have voted to oppose the TCE pumped storage proposal in Meaford. Zero. Hasn’t happened. There’s no reason to believe any will either.
Maybe Councils think they did. They didn’t. There may be Councils who think they supported someone else’s opposition to TCE’s Meaford pumped storage. They didn’t.
It wasn’t TCE’s Meaford Pumped Storage they opposed. It was a decoy. A fake.
The actual proposal is now available in the IAAC formal documents. The real TCE proposal became available – to all of us – at the same time. February 26, 2026.
Somehow, 2 years ago, the Township of the Archipelago (TOA) Council came to believe the TCE facility at the Base was to be built where the Army had shelled for decades. A site that TOA received “evidence” to verify was very polluted. It would be good to find out how TOA came to believe this. Since it was false from the start.
Problem is, that location was ruled out by DND long before the public ever found out the Meaford proposal was in preliminary discussions. And was discarded as an unsuitable location before Save Georgian Bay formed.
TOA Council somehow believed it was going to happen there. And were asked to help prevent it.
Somehow, TOA Council came to believe TCE planned to reproduce the design used for pumped storage in Ludington Michigan (from 1973) in Meaford. Complete with the start up problems Ludington had over 50 years ago. Without the corrections that fixed those problems. It was hopelessly naïve to believe no design improvements in pumped storage happened in the last 50 years. And that none of them would be incorporated into the TCE design (still years away from being completed).
The replication of Ludington in Meaford was never going to happen either. It would be good to find out how TOA Council came to believe it was. Since it was also false from the start.
The fact that TOA Council didn’t bother to ask “Is this true?” didn’t help.
If a thing won’t exist, and was never even an option to exist, what’s accomplished by getting Town Councils to oppose it? If a thing was never going to be put somewhere, and you voted to oppose putting it there, what did you prove?
Nothing.
When that location was vetoed long before you even found out the thing might be happening? You can’t even claim after the fact that you opposed an “earlier version” of it. You didn’t oppose a real thing at all. You voted to oppose a twisted work of fiction.
The pictures of the proposed Meaford pumped storage (Sun-Times IAAC Review article) prove that the TCE proposal’s resemblance to the 1973 vintage (and yet still safely operating) facility in Ludington MI pretty much starts and stops at “Both pump water safely up a hill. Then it runs down a tunnel. Safely.”
Claiming they’d be the same was always akin to pointing at a 2030 Honda Civic and insisting it’s a 1973 Ford Pinto.
Because Ludington? 1973! Meaford? 2030!
Anyone, including SGB, claiming that “six Georgian Bay municipalities … have formally opposed the project” should be required to produce a list of Ontario municipalities that can truthfully say they saw the real reservoir location and TCE’s genuine proposed design for Meaford – before they voted.
It would have had to happen after Feb. 26, 2026, of course.
Unless you checked with TCE first? Before voting?
None of those six municipalities picked up the phone to ask TCE “Hey! We’re hearing terrible things about your project! Come tell us if they’re true!” before they voted.
Really? You say you did? Prove it. Please.
For example, Township of the Archipelago Council didn’t get around to learning any facts for a number of weeks following their infamous vote to “vehemently oppose”.
None of those municipalities who learned that they voted to oppose something that was never going to exist, and was in fact imaginary, rescinded their votes. None of the six has corrected their public record.
The Georgian Bay Association (GBA) endorsed the campaign to oppose a work of fiction.
As of today, after SIX long years, no one from GBA has picked up the phone to ask TCE “Hey! We’re hearing terrible things about your project! Come tell us if they’re true!”
Doing so prior to posting their public opposition to the proposal on their website would have been responsible and professional. (GBA added some facts (the TCE material) – eventually.)
The GBA should tell us if they came all the way to Meaford for the IAAC briefing without devoting one short hour at TCE for a truth presentation. The morning or afternoon sessions of the exact same day were available.
While I am vehemently opposed to drilling for oil in Meaford Harbour, I don’t ask or expect Municipalities around the Bay to vote to oppose it. For pretty obvious reasons.
Unfortunately, the same thing can’t be said about asking municipalities to oppose something else that was never real.
I conclude that smoke and mirrors, confusion, and misplaced anger are the only things accomplished when Town Councils oppose something that was false from the start.
There are no Municipalities in Ontario that have voted to oppose the TCE pumped storage project in Meaford. How could they? Even today they may not know what they opposed, but it sure wasn’t the TCE Meaford pumped storage proposal.
They didn’t look at it.
Let’s all stop pretending that they did.
Bruce Mason, Meaford
