A University of Copenhagen Masters student, who originally hails from Collingwood, is conducting a survey related to the TC Energy pumped storage proposal.
“I am an MSc student at the University of Copenhagen, I study Environment and Development with a specialization in Livelihoods and Government. I am currently writing my masters thesis and focusing on energy infrastructure governance and local economic development. As a requirement for my program I must complete fieldwork as a part of my thesis, which my survey is a part of my field work,” Alexandra Schneider told The Independent. “I knew I wanted to come back home for my fieldwork and I knew I wanted my focus energy infrastructure governance and local economic development, and after some research and talking to locals, I discovered the pumped storage project. It was a great case study for what I was interested in studying and as I learned more about the project I wanted to learn about and understand Meaford’s community perspective.”
With her survey, Schneider is hoping to gain an understanding of the community’s perspective on the pumped storage proposal.
“I want to first gain a general understanding of where the community stands on the project, then on a deeper level I want to understand community perspective about community participation and decision-making on the project, community perspective on ownership of the project, and community perspective on the local economic development from the project. I am a researcher, I want to hear the communities’ voices and understand what they have to say about the project. I am not here to lobby or push for any sort of agenda, I am just wanting to learn from survey,” Schneider explained.
The survey asks participants about what potential economic benefits residents expect from the project should it move forward, as well as how residents feel about how the decisions are being made, and whether they feel that their voices are being heard. The survey also asks who residents think should have decision-making power, the province, the municipality, local residents, or other stakeholders.
“I developed the questions based on my research into energy infrastructure governance and by reviewing project documents, municipal records, and community concerns that have been raised publicly,” Schneider, who attended the February 12 IAAC information session at Meaford Hall, told The Independent.
Proponent TC Energy has said the multi-billion dollar project proposal is a green initiative that would consume inexpensive off-peak power at night to pump water from Georgian Bay into a 374-acre storage reservoir located 150 metres above the Georgian Bay shoreline on the military base. The reservoir, which would hold 20 million cubic metres of water, would be emptied back into Georgian Bay during peak usage periods, driving hydraulic turbines to generate electricity.
Since the proposed facility first became public knowledge in 2019, many residents have expressed concerns about the proposal, ranging from fears that the facility would have negative impacts on the environment, including impacting fish populations in the bay, to concerns that homeowners in close proximity to the site could be in danger of flooding should the reservoir fail. Concern has also been growing about the potential for contaminated soil on the military base to create issues once disturbed when the reservoir is dug. Many have also expressed concern about the cost of the multi-billion dollar proposal, and whether pumped storage should be favoured over alternatives like battery storage.
While her survey is being conducted from March 10 until April 1, that the timing coincides with the IAAC impact assessment public commenting period, which runs from March 6 until April 6, is coincidental.
“The survey is not intentionally being conducted during the 30-day IAAC impact assessment public commenting period which runs from March 6 to April 6. This just so happened to be the same time that I was ready to publish my survey and how much time I had planned to have it open,” Schneider explained. “I am aware that it lines up very closely with the IAAC public commenting period and I was hesitant to publish my survey as I was worried about causing confusion and didn’t want my survey to prevent people’s comments being published to the correct forum for the federal government to see. However, because of my limited research timeline I did move forward with publishing my survey and tried to the best of my ability to make it clear that I am not affiliated with any key stakeholders and the survey is just for academic research and I am a student researcher.”
Schneider says that it takes approximately 15 minutes to complete her survey which can be found at the following link:
