Save Georgian Bay took to the water over the weekend for a flotilla protesting TC Energy’s drilling rig.
One of the Directors of Save Georgian Bay Tom Buck says about three dozen people registered to take part in the protest on Saturday.
“We plan on coming out onto the water in a celebration of the beauty of Georgian Bay,” says Buck. “We are going to be objecting to the drilling rig that has appeared from TCE that is now putting holes in the lakebed here and they are working on that for two or three months as really a harbinger of things to come if this project in approved.”
He hopes the protest will remind TC Energy as well as both provincial and federal governments the organization continues to study and object to the proposed project.
“There are better ways to do this storage and we just want everyone in the community and those leaders to understand there is a better way for them to do this,” says Buck.
This comes after TC Energy began its offshore drilling program in Georgian Bay as part of a proposed pumped storage project.
The rig was installed in the water during the last week of July, east of the 4th Canadian Division Training Centre.
TC Energy announced over the weekend the geotechnical program’s project facilities was moved to deeper waters due to feedback the organization received from Saugeen Ojibway Nation and Meaford residents.
“The geotechnical program will provide critical information to help us better understand the soil and rock composition in the area. Once this work is complete, the temporary barge platform will be removed from site,” says TC Energy in a Facebook post.
The rig will be in Georgian Bay until the end of September.
Buck was sceptical over the motivation of why TC Energy had moved the rig.
“They don’t share information on things like that. They are out doing things for their own purposes. Could it be that they just wanted to test another location, could it be they wanted to get a little bit more out of sight, I don’t really know those answers. I would love to hear from TCE on what their purpose was in relocating,” says Buck.
Save Georgian Bay is concerned the drilling project will impact the water environment and those who live on the bay.
“We are also concerned about the scale of this project and the cost of this project for rate payers across Ontario. The utility bills are going to go up. It’s gone from $2.3 billion to now over $7 billion in cost and that number is two years old. We suspect it is going to turn out to be an extremely costly project and the province is going to burden tax payers and rate payers with that cost,” says Buck.