Lake Sturgeon stranded in a hydroelectric facility’s overflow channel.
The proposed eligibility requirements for hydroelectric resources are fundamentally misaligned with Ontario’s climate realities, freshwater vulnerabilities, and the scientific evidence on reservoir emissions. Climate-driven warming, drought—deluge cycles, thermal exceedances, and declining summer flows further worsen their impacts and are documented extensively in Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Synthesis of Freshwater Science in Canada. It provides federal scientific confirmation that Canadian freshwater systems are increasingly threatened by warming temperatures, altered hydrology, extreme precipitation patterns, habitat fragmentation and biodiversity declines.[i] Exactly the pressures that make new hydropower dams and reservoirs even more damaging.
In addition, the Ontario Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment and Technical Report Appendices[ii] must be incorporated into the Minister of Energy and IESO’s decision-making regarding hydropower. It is crucial that Ontario’s electricity planning is anchored in climate reality, not supply-driven industrial aspirations and untenable dreams of becoming an “Energy Superpower”, on the backs of ratepayers and the environment, no less.
[i] Environment and Climate Change Canada. “Synthesis of Freshwater Science in Canada, An overview toward informing discussion on prioritizing of freshwater science activities”.
[ii] Ontario Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment and Technical Report Appendices.