Lake Sturgeon trapped in hydroelectric overflow channel.
The detailed options analysis is short-sighted and incomplete when there has been no consideration of the January 2023 Ontario Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment, which warns that “changes in Ontario’s climate are expected to continue at unprecedented rates… and it will pose indirect threats to things like water availability and water quality”. This is in spite of the Northwest Scoping Assessment Report highlighting the need to recognize climate change priorities.
The analysis also did not appear to heed all the recommendations in the 2015 North of Dryden Integrated Regional Resource Plan, which rejected new hydroelectric in the north due to its intermittent and unreliable nature during drought conditions. Instead, the decision was to construct new transmission lines into northern Ontario.
IESO needs to do right by Ontarians and inform the Minister of Energy and Mines that there should be:
NO NEW HYDROELECTRIC PROCUREMENT IN ONTARIO.