WWF-Canada and Nature Conservancy Support Adding Turbines to Non-powered Dams

By Linda Heron on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022

Posted in Dam Removals, Dams, Energy, Fisheries, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Heavy Metals, Hydroelectric, Mercury, Mercury, ORA Submissions, Removal, River Concerns, Rivers at Risk, Species at Risk, Studies & Reports, Urban Development

It is challenging to understand the logic of a November 2021 CBC article that reports, “The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund are two environmental groups that oppose new hydro dams because they can block fish migration, harm water quality, damage surrounding ecosystems and release methane and CO₂. But they say adding turbines to non-powered dams can be part of a shift toward low-impact hydro projects that can support expansion of solar and wind power.” Whether it’s a new dam or an older retrofitted dam, they will result in the same negative impacts and produce the same amount of methane for 70 to 100 years or more.

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ERO-019-3268 – Strengthening our Environmental Compliance Approach

By Linda Heron on Monday, June 28th, 2021

West Credit River, Photo by Steve Noakes

The ORA offers strong support for polluters being held accountable; however, that isn’t what’s happening here. Rather than strengthening enforcement tools that hold polluters accountable, this government is systematically and persistently dismantling, weakening or bypassing all environmental policy and legislation that was designed to protect the environment and deter those industries, corporations or individuals who would pollute and/or destroy the environment.

These ERO postings consistently mislead the public, especially in the top several paragraphs and titles, which contain misleading introductions to the proposed policy the government is proposing. In fact, you can always count on these “modernization” policy changes to be a further attack on environmental policy and legislation. It is even more despicable that these attacks have largely been carried out during the government’s declared COVID Emergency, where no public consultation is required, and what consultation that does take place is meaningless when the main objective is to cut red tape and remove any roadblocks to development and pollution, in spite of the public’s strong recommendations to protect the environment.

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Trout Lake River Hydroelectric Generating Station, at Big Falls – Update from 2013

By Linda Heron on Tuesday, October 6th, 2020

Posted in Big Falls, Class EA for Waterpower, Dams, Hydroelectric, Impacts, Mercury, Mitigation, Part II Order requests, River Concerns, Rivers at Risk, Toxics, Trout Lake River

Big Falls, Trout Lake River

In May of 2013 the Ontario Rivers Alliance made a Part II Order request on the proposed Trout Lake River Hydroelectric Generating Station, at Big Falls, in the Red Lake area. This proposal seemed to die a natural death with no decision on our Part II request, or activity/movement forward on the project. Here we are now more than 7 years later, and last week we received the correspondence below from the MECP stating that

“As part of our government’s efforts to boost Ontario’s economic recovery after COVID- 19, we have passed the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, 2020, including amendments to the Environmental Assessment Act.

The changes to the Environmental Assessment Act will allow us to build a strong environmental assessment program that effectively considers the input of local communities and focuses on projects that have the highest impact to the environment. The Act will continue to consider “the protection, conservation and wise management in Ontario of the environment”. A key change made to the Environmental Assessment Act was to limit Part II Order requests to potential adverse impacts of projects to constitutionally protected Aboriginal or treaty rights. All Part II Order requests that were under review which do not pertain to potential adverse impacts on constitutionally protected Aboriginal or treaty rights have been terminated by the amendments.”

The COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act was passed earlier this year, and this legislative amendment is retroactive in its backwards reach to 2013. In spite of the government’s misleading claim that the changes to the EAA “will allow us to build a strong environmental assessment program”, it couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, there is now no mechanism to request a more rigorous environmental assessment, and public consultation and consideration on these risky projects, as well as the ability to make a Part II Order request, is no longer a possibility. There was also no public or Indigenous consultation before the passing of the Economic Recovery Act.

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Draft Great Lakes Binational Strategy for Mercury Risk Management – NGO – ORA Support

By Linda Heron on Sunday, June 17th, 2018

Posted in Mercury, Regulatory, Support

On behalf of the 58 undersigned groups, we are providing these comments on the draft Great Lakes Binational Strategy for Mercury Risk Management (April 2018, hereafter “Mercury Strategy”). Note that these comments expand on comments submitted by Canadian Environmental Law Association, National Wildlife Federation and Toxics Free Great Lakes Network on this matter on May 25, 2018.

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