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On Monday, Feb. 27, the council of the Municipality of Meaford passed a motion expressing conditional support for the construction and operation of the proposed TransCanada Energy pumped storage facility energy plan.
TransCanada Energy Ltd. (TC Energy) is currently seeking approval from the federal and provincial governments to establish a 1,000 MW pumped storage facility to be constructed on a portion of land within the 4th Canadian Division Training Centre in Meaford.
The TCE pumped storage facility project continues to seek approvals from required regulatory bodies, with the next steps being to obtain approval from the provincial Minister of Energy, and complete additional studies required for the federal and provincial environmental impact and assessment processes.
Council of the Municipality of Meaford passed the motion in a 5-2 recorded vote. The motion provided four conditions that must be met in order for the Municipality to fully support the project.
Those conditions included receiving confirmation from TC Energy that they will be:
- reimbursing the Municipality for all costs incurred;
- ensuring the development of a regulatory plan which will outline how Meaford will participate in the Federal Impact Assessment process;
- the adoption of a formal agreement between the Municipality and TC Energy for community benefits; and
- approval of the facility under all processes and assessments.
Council has previously directed staff to work on a Community Benefit Agreement with TC Energy to ensure that the wider community benefits from the project if it goes ahead. This week’s motion also identified that the Community Benefits Agreement shall include community benefits and mitigation for project related community impacts.
Full wording of the motion and draft minutes from the February 27 meeting can be found here.
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source: media release, Municipality of Meaford
