Muskoka Lakes has filed a lawsuit against the province in an effort to protect a portage route that would be affected by a contested hydroelectric plant.
The portage is located beside the North Bala Falls where the proposed hydroelectric station is planned to be built.
The municipality filed a notice of application for a judicial review of the Ministry of Natural Resources issued on March 27 regarding the ministry’s decision to proceed with permits for the water energy project.
Muskoka Lakes Mayor Alice Murphy said the effect of the hydroelectric project on the portage has been a concern for a long time. Recently she has been tweeting Premier Kathleen Wynne and others about what she is calling the “illegal” Bala Falls hydro plant.
“Within the Public Lands Act is a specific protection for portaging, and portaging is a right across navigable waters and the point at which one portages needs to be protected,” she said, “so consideration for the portage route does not appear to have been given by MNR to date.”
The Public Lands Act states the following concerning portages:
“Where public lands over which a portage has existed or exists have been heretofore or are hereafter sold or otherwise disposed of under this or any other act, any person travelling on waters connected by the portage has the right to pass over and along the portage with the person’s effects without the permission of or payment to the owner of the lands, and any person who obstructs, hinders, delays or interferes with the exercise of such right of passage is guilty of an offence.”
The MNR would not comment on the lawsuit or the mayor’s tweets since the matter is before the courts.
Karen McGhee, Swift River Energy project manager for the Bala Falls plant, told this paper on Friday that she could not comment on how the judicial review would affect the project or whether the company will be involved in the court proceedings. However, she told a local radio station a few days prior that Swift River asked to be part of the proceedings, saying the case would affect the size of the plant.
Susan Daglish, president for the Muskoka Ratepayers Association said she’s not sure the alleged portage is in the right place.
“I think as the president of the ratepayers I’m offended that taxpayer money is going to be used to further fight the Bala Falls hydroelectric plant,” she said. “I don’t believe that this lawsuit’s in the general interest of the township. The things that bother me are how did this get passed by council, and the second is, are we sure that the designated place is the right place? I understand there was some controversy about that.”
The township previously tried to stop the project by opposing environmental assessments for the project, which were finally passed on Jan. 23.
The hearing scheduled for Tuesday, April 9 was adjourned and will now be heard as a Judicial Review Application in Divisional Court in Toronto on June 28.
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