To the Editor,
Recent coverage has rightly focused on what the public still does not know about TC Energy’s proposed pumped storage project. One omission remains central: despite years of development and $285 million in public funding from the province, no environmental studies, contamination assessments, engineering risk analyses, or updated cost estimates have been released.
The Initial Project Description (IPD) is repeatedly described as a “high-level overview” meant to identify information gaps and determine what requires further study. But this framing raises an obvious question. After six years of development and a quarter-billion dollars explicitly allocated for pre-development work—including environmental assessments and a detailed cost estimate—why are those studies still absent from the public record?
The Ontario government stated that the $285 million investment was intended to support feasibility work, including updated costs and environmental analysis. If that work has been completed, it should be released. If it has not, the public deserves to know why. Asking residents to guide a federal assessment process without first disclosing the studies already paid for with public funds reverses basic expectations of transparency.
The same pattern appears in the discussion of alternatives. While the IPD is said to include “possible alternatives”, residents who examine the document will find no meaningful analysis of competing options. This is especially troubling given that the Independent Electricity System Operator previously identified other storage solutions as more cost-effective, yet the province never issued a public call for competing proposals. Alternatives were never allowed to compete. While the Initial Project Description includes a checklist discussion of alternative technologies, it presents no independent comparison, cost analysis, or open competition between alternatives—only a proponent-defined justification for the pre-selected project.
For years, concerned residents, Save Georgian Bay, and multiple municipal councils have raised the same issues through coffee chats, emails, and formal resolutions. Yet none of these concerns have been addressed through publicly released studies—because no studies have been released at all.
Before asking the public for further input, TC Energy should disclose every study completed using the $285 million in provincial funding. Transparency should precede consultation, not follow it.
Pat Zita, Meaford
