Save Georgian Bay

Save Georgian Bay supports efforts to combat the climate change crisis with renewable energy sources and electricity storage solutions. But we believe that TC Energy’s proposed Pumped Storage Project in Meaford is not the best way to decarbonize the grid. It threatens irreversible harm to both the Niagara Escarpment, a UN-designated World Biosphere Reserve, and the fresh water resource of Georgian Bay, as well as to its fish and entire aquatic ecosystem on which residents depend. A handful of municipalities around the Georgian Bay basin agree and have voted to oppose the project.

Newer, more efficient and less environmentally-invasive technologies have already rendered this multi-billion-dollar hydro-electric project obsolete. And its soaring price tag, capped at $7 billion, will burden Ontario electricity consumers for decades. Even the government’s own regulators have vetoed the project. Twice in the last three years the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), which manages Ontario’s electricity needs, has concluded that it fails to deliver any net economic benefit to provincial ratepayers. Nevertheless, Energy Minister Todd Smith has over-ruled his independent experts and vowed to proceed.

TC Energy’s proposed Pumped Storage Project will:

• Excavate a 375-acre reservoir on the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.
• Pump 23 billion litres of Georgian Bay water up the escarpment at night, when electricity rates are low, and release them in the day when demand and rates are high, a process that will repeat daily for at least the 50 to 100-year lifespan of the project.
• Require a 20-metre high concrete dam around the 4.8-kilometre perimeter of the reservoir, which will not be subject to regulation or hazard classification under existing Ontario laws.
• Bore massive shafts and tunnels into the Niagara Escarpment, big enough to drive a bus through, connecting the reservoir to gigantic underground turbines and intake/outlet pipes beneath the lakebed.
• Bury 50 kilometres of high-voltage cables underwater between Meaford and Wasaga Beach, causing potential damage to water quality and the entire fragile aquatic ecosystem of the most populous stretch of Georgian Bay.
• Consume 30 percent more electricity pumping the water uphill overnight than it can store and release during the day.
• Actually increase, not decrease, greenhouse gas emissions during its four-year construction.
• Spread contamination from the acres of unexploded munitions and other toxins on its site, an active military base, which—once disturbed during construction—could pollute local wells, aquifers and the fresh water of Georgian Bay itself.
• Put at risk as many as 30 endangered species the Defence Department has catalogued on the base.
• Endanger the residents of 300 homes, farms and cottages currently situated below the reservoir, should it leak, overflow or otherwise be breached.

Save Georgian Bay: Winner of the Ontario Nature Corporate Award for Conservation 2024

“Red Bay, June 1, 2024 – Ontario Nature, a leading environmental charity, recognized the exceptional contributions to nature conservation made by individuals and organizations. Their dedication and hard work are an inspiration.

The conservation awards celebrate individuals, groups, government agencies and corporations whose efforts have helped protect some of Ontario’s most vulnerable wild species and wild spaces.

This [Corporate] award is given to an organization that has demonstrated outstanding action for protecting the natural environment.”

Friends of Save Georgian Bay

Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA)

Georgian Bay Association (GBA)

Escarpment Corridor Alliance (ECA)

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“Georgian Bay Association is concerned about the risks posed by this proposed project to water quality throughout Georgian Bay, aquatic biota, and the habitat of species-at-risk – plus the irreversible harm to the Niagara Escarpment. Given that the project does not have the support of the regulator, the Independent Electricity System Operator (who view it as a bad financial deal for Ontario and question whether it will even be needed by the time it is finished), and given the far less costly alternatives that can be put in place in 2-3 years rather than a decade, we believe that it is imperative that the Minister of Energy put this long-term energy storage requirement out to a public, competitive tender.”

Rupert KindersleyExecutive Director, Georgian Bay Association

“TCE is proposing to construct a huge reservoir with pipelines into pristine Georgian Bay. The site proposed is likely one of the most contaminated locations in Ontario and construction will spread that contamination into the air and water. The project will disrupt the military mission, put Georgian Bay water at risk, damage many species at risk on the 4CDTC property and burden utility ratepayers with high costs for decades.”

Tom BuckSave Georgian Bay

“TC Energy’s proposed pumped storage operation is a monster of an idea. It could destroy the entire aquatic ecosystem of Georgian Bay and threaten the sanctity of a UNESCO World Biosphere. We in Canada have taken our fragile water heritage for granted and not properly cared for it. This dangerous plan puts a huge body of water at risk to provide energy that can more safely be supplied in other ways. It must be stopped!”

Maude BarlowCo-founder of the Council of Canadians and author of Blue Gold, Whose Water Is It Anyway? and Still Hopeful: Lessons from a Lifetime of Activism

“The Ontario Clean Air Alliance is concerned that Ontario’s Minister of Energy, Todd Smith, is promoting TC Energy’s high-cost Meaford pumped storage project despite the fact that according to the Independent Electricity System Operator we have lower cost alternatives, including battery storage. By 2030 the storage capacity of our electric vehicles’ (EVs) batteries will be more than 20 times larger than the proposed Meaford pumped storage project. Instead of negotiating a sweetheart, backroom deal with TC Energy, Minister Smith should direct our electric utilities to pay EV owners to provide power back to the grid when it is needed.”

Jack GibbonsChair, Ontario Clean Air Alliance and Former Toronto Hydro Commissioner

“The ECA is opposed to TCE’s proposal to construct a large pumped storage facility on the escarpment near Meaford.  The physical damage to the Escarpment and its flora and fauna with a 375-acre excavation area for reservoir storage is considerable as are the risks to both water quality and the aquatic environment in Georgian Bay. The risks of such a project combined with the lack of economic necessity as determined by Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator suggests that alternative energy storage projects such as battery storage are viable and preferred alternatives.

Jarvis StrongExecutive Director, Escarpment Corridor Alliance

Save Georgian Bay acknowledges that we live and work on the traditional lands and treaty territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, which includes the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation. We also recognize the Métis whose ancestors shared this land and these waters. We extend our gratitude to all Anishinaabe and Métis peoples and their descendants, past, present and future, who continue to care for and inhabit these lands and tend these waters.