Springbank Dam. Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.comSpringbank Dam. Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.com
London

Mathyssen Weighs In On Dam Debate

There is a new voice in the fight to decommission the Springbank Dam.

London-Fanshawe MP Irene Mathyssen has penned an open letter to Mayor Matt Brown and city council regarding the future of the dam.

In the letter, Mathyssen makes her stance clear saying "the decision, in my view, is an easy one and it should be to decommission the dam."

Mathyssen notes there is scientific evidence that the Thames River is in better health now than it was when the dam was operational.

She goes on to say repairing the dam would be costly and exceed the $3.775-million settlement the city received in the fall of 2015.

"Repairing the Springbank Dam represents an unnecessary additional cost to the property tax burden for Londoners," says Mathyssen. "At a time when genuine infrastructure and rapid transit needs are already creating a tax increase, it would be questionable to add to that increase with a costly repair bill for the dam."

Mathyssen also says decomissioning the dam would help the city build relations with neighbouring First Nations.

"The Chippewa of the Thames has been clear in its position in favour of decommissioning the dam and the City of London should be working respectfully with our First Nations neighbours. Again, to ignore the objections of the Chippewa of the Thames would hearken back to an era when First Nations voices were not only ignored, but actively suppressed."

In addition to the Chippewa of the Thames, Matthyssen says the Oneida, the Munsee-Delaware, and Delaware First Nations, as well as small communities such as Thamesville, and Chatham will be negatively affected if the dam is repaired.

Mayor Brown made fixing the dam a priority in his election platform and, during testing of the three other gates that was done in the summer of 2015, the city’s Manager of Wastewater and Drainage Engineering pointed out there is a constituency of Londoners that wants to see the dam fixed.

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