Georgina Island Fixed Link - a comprehensive full impact assessment is needed.

What would be the cost of the Georgina Island Fixed Link to the health of Lake Simcoe?

That is one of the most important question and it seems that no effort is being made to find the answer.

The potential environmental impacts mentioned in the Initial Project Description are only for the 'study area' and that study area only covers the area of the construction itself when in fact this is a massive project with potentially wide reaching impacts.

According to the description the link would consist of 'two permanent causeways, each with a continuous length of 500 to 1000 metres' plus a bridge. So put another way there would one to two kilometers of lake obstructed by this link. This could have extensive harmful effects on the lake to the east of the link - an area already under significant environmental stress. How can this barrier not affect the flow of the lake's waters into the area?

What would that mean to the water quality? To fishing? Swimming? Boating? What would it mean to the home and cottage owners in the area and indeed to the whole south eastern shore of Georgina Island itself. This is over 12 square kilometers of Lake Simcoe that could be ruined.

A full and comprehensive impact assessment must be done.

Others have suggested that perhaps a new environmentally friendly ferry equipped to handle the winter ice would be a better solution. This makes sense. Let's not forget that the same global warming that makes the winter ice road less viable makes it easier to run a ferry all year. In general the length of time the current ferry can't run has been getting shorter and shorter and in fact in 2020 the ferry was able to maintain service through out the winter months.

A new ferry designed to handle the ice could be a far more sensible and environmentally safe solution and should be seriously investigated.