Plea to family, friends and neighbours... Help our community before Tuesday.
Please help me protect Bala falls by sending an e-mail to the Premier and/or asking your family, friends and neighbours to send theirs, before Tuesday, January 24, 2017.
From www.savethebalafalls.com :
If you have sent your e-mail but didn't receive a reply from sending us a copy, please send a copy to [email protected]. We need copies of e-mails sent so we can be sure they are hand-delivered.
Detail
The best way to show the Premier our continuing strong concern is by the number of people that send an e-mail. Now is the time to ask your family, friends, and neighbours to each send an e-mail.
So, if you have not yet sent the e-mail explained in our previous e-Newsletter:
1. Send it before Tuesday January 24, 2017.
2. We need as many people sending e-mails as possible; each member of your family separately, your Muskoka friends and neighbours, anybody that wants to be sure that unsuspecting tourists are not drowned.
3. Follow-up with a phone call to each to remind them their e-mail needs to be sent by Tuesday.
4. Send each e-mail to:
a. The Premier, at [email protected], (click right now to get that started)
b. With a copy to MPP Norm Miller at [email protected]
c. And copy your home MPP (addresses are here)
d. And copy [email protected] – we will print and hand-deliver these
5. Each e-mail can be just a sentence or two. In addition to "Dear Premier" and your name and home address, any one of the following is all you need:
a. The proponent for the proposed Bala generating station would not comply with their environmental approval, as their own information shows they would make the Moon River dangerous outside of their downstream safety boom. Please reply telling me how you would ensure the proponent would not be allowed to renege on such an important public safety commitment.
b. The MNRF's safety procedures require that the public be warned before flow is increased to the Moon River, but the proponent for the proposed Bala generating station has stated they would not provide this warning. Please reply telling me how you would ensure – and not just "expect" – that they would comply with the MNRF's safety procedures.
c. The proponent for the proposed Bala generating station has already shown their plans are unacceptably dangerous, so I request the proponent be required to show how they would operate safely before any further approvals are provided. Please reply whether you agree with this requirement.
d. Transport Canada's safety procedures require that the safety boom upstream of the proposed Bala generating station be relocated farther upstream, but this would prevent Purk's Place from renting boats. Please reply whether you will require this issue to be resolved before any further approvals are issued.
e. Transport Canada's mandate does not include the Moon River, so they have not assessed the dangers that would be created downstream by the proposed Bala generating station. The provincial Ministries therefore do not have any authoritative input on the public safety dangers that would be created. I request that before any further approvals are issued, the proponent be required to show how they would operate their proposed station safely. Please reply whether you agree with this requirement.
f. I understand and agree with the MNRF's "Stay Clear, Stay Safe" educational campaign. But the proponent's own information shows their proposed generating station at the Bala falls would make the water dangerous more than 300' from their station, both outside of the downstream safety boom and in front of people's private docks. Please reply how the public in these locations would be informed of the dangers.
Phone a few people now, explain the need for them to send an e-mail, forward this e-mail to them, and phone them again in a day or two to follow-up.
Premier's New Year's Levee
Each year, the Premier holds a New Year's Levee with federal MP Rob Oliphant, with whom she shares the Don Valley West constituency. Several of our supporters attended so that we could have a moment to talk directly with the Premier about the unaddressed concerns for the proposed hydro-electric generating station at the Bala falls.
You can see here a photograph of Mitchell Shnier spending his entire time with the Premier talking, and here is the letter hand-delivered to the Premier.
Media contacts
If you have any direct media contacts, please e-mail us at [email protected], we're always interested in getting our message out to more people.
SaveTheBalaFalls.com
My passion is #CommunityEconomics. Capitalists have been enriching themselves. We need an economic system for enriching Communities, Regions and Countries.
8 年This is what I wrote: Dear Premier, I am a long–time member of the Ontario Liberal Party and I sit on the executive of the Aurora –Oak Ridges –Richmond Hill Provincial Liberal Association. I also hope I will be an MPP in your caucus in 2018. I supported you at the last Leadership Election Meeting, in part, because I felt you would do better than Sandra Pupatello at protecting the interests of Communities. I met with you at your office (in 2009, I think) on the issue of the proposed hydro-electric generating station at the Bala falls. I have discussed with you in person and on Newstalk 1010 a proposal that we (at Community Enterprise Network Inc.) feel would make excellent community energy policies and programs for Ontario. I have offered constructive crown-land energy policy suggestions to you in 2011 (see attached) and to other ministers and staff repeatedly over the past ten years. ? Nobody in Ontario should ever build such a dangerous hydro-electric generating station as is proposed by Swift River Energy Limited. It is my learned opinion that there is a safer and less disruptive alternative and that the current proposal causes dangerously turbulent water to circulate too close to the public in-water recreational area of the community and to public and private docks. ? To my knowledge, the MOECC has no in-house public safety expertise. ? I understand that 1.) the MNR usually depends on Transport Canada for safety assessment of waterpower projects and 2.) due to the implementation of the Navigation Protection Act, Transport Canada did not assess the dangers that would be created outside the project area downstream of the proposed project in the Moon River. ? Therefore, treacherously turbulent and fast water could extend beyond the project area. And the proponent has not provided me details about warning the public (in particular outside of the downstream safety boom) even though, I believe, MNRF safety procedures require this. I have found that the proponent is hostile and unreasonable in their consideration of safer alternatives. Accordingly, please ensure that before any further approvals are issued, the proponent be required to show how they could operate their proposed generating station safely. Furthermore, I would ask that you NOT extending the (existing offer) to Swift River Energy Limited et al under the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) program until such time as Ontario has workable policies and programs for development of community energy projects. Please reply how your government proposes the facilitation of community energy development on crown land (like Bala Falls) in the future. Finally, I understand and agree with the "Stay Clear, Stay Safe" public educational campaign. However, the proponent's own information shows their proposed generating station at the Bala falls would release turbulent and potentially dangerous water up to 300' from the proposed station. This is well beyond any reasonable "Stay Clear, Stay Safe" distance. I assert that the dangerous water would extend far beyond the exclusion area created by the downstream safety boom surrounding the project area (into public recreation and water transit areas and also into the area of public and private docks). Please reply how you think Swift River Energy Limited could operate their proposed generating station safely and how the public outside of the project area would be informed of the dangers of turbulent waters. Thank you for your consideration of these matters. I welcome the opportunity to meet with you to provide my thoughts on amicably resolving this issue without further cost to the taxpayer. Sincerely, Jeff Mole, In my capacity as citizen. 705-645-0820