Robichaud – Part II Order Request – Ivanhoe River, The Chute Proposed Generating Station

Laurent Robichaud

Timmins, ON

September 11^th 2011

The Honourable John Wilkinson

Minister of the Environment

12^th Floor,

135 St Clair Ave W.

Toronto ON

4 M4V 1P5

Minister.moe@ontario.ca

Re: – The proposed Generating Station at “The Chute” on the Ivanhoe River.

Dear Minister,

The purpose of this letter is to request a Part II Order under the Environmental Assessment Act.

This project is to establish a hydro generating station at “The Chute” on the Ivanhoe River. The project is being developed by Xeneca Power Development Incorporated. The Notice of Completion under Class EA has reached its deadline of September 12^th for public and stakeholder participation.

Xeneca has attempted to appease my concerns about the aquatic environment present at “The Chute” but even Mr. Gillette’s last communication had not answered my questions. The only positive note was the possibility of making contact with members of Natural Resources Solution Inc. responsible for the aquatic research part of the EA process. The fact still remains that since the 19^th of July until the 9^th of September, I was not able to acquire any aquatic field reports relating the actual physical work done on the site.

I am still very much concerned about the possibility of a small surviving population of lake sturgeon below “The Chute” on the Ivanhoe River. I must admit that although I have been an advocate of this species for many years now, I have not been close enough to this river to get a clear picture of lake sturgeon presence or activities on this major tributary of the Groundhog River. There have been a few reports of incidental captures of lake sturgeon below “The Chute” which leads me to think that there is a possibility that there is a small residing population struggling to survive.

This situation would then by definition be an extreme case of the effort put forward by the Province to save this Species at Risk. This environmental situation could change the status of “Special Concern” in Northeastern Ontario to “Endangered” at least for the Ivanhoe River.

My request is simple and because we have reached the Notice of Completion deadline, we need to answer affirmatively without a doubt that lake sturgeon are not present between “The Chute and Three Falls” on the Ivanhoe River.

I hope that this request for Part II Order will be the vehicle to reach our common goal to do what is appropriate to protect the health of this existing aquatic ecosystem on the Ivanhoe River.

I await your response to my request.

Best Regards,

Laurent Robichaud

Cc: Vanesa Enskaitis, Xeneca – venskaitis@xeneca.com

Patrick Gillette, Xeneca – Pgillette@xeneca.com