Hydro One says around 2,000 of it's customers will be be affected by a power outage coming to the Caledonia and surrounding areas that will take place this summer.
The June 3-4 power outage is expecting to last 10 hours in total. It will start at 10 p.m. June 3 and end at 8 a.m. June 4. The announcement was made to Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) during the Tuesday General Council meeting.
The power outage is required to let Hydro One workers install new equipment at the Caledonia transformer station on Argyle Street in Caledonia.
Erika Dawson, Indigenous relations specialist for Hydro One, provided more details on the project.
"There is plans to remove and replace some volt transformers and some failed switches within the station," she said. "The work however does require a long outage, due to the safety of the crew that's performing the work."
Dawson says she has provided a list of addresses for community members who will be affected by the power outage to Six Nations Director of Public Works Michael Montour. Dawson also intends on setting up a pop-up community information session that she says hopefully will take place on April 22 in conjunction with SNEC.
She adds that currently she is working internally on providing community social supports which included providing generators to those individuals and businesses that will be affected.
"This is something that I'm still looking internally about, I personally have not worked on such a large outage before, so I want to make sure there is social supports in place," she said. "I have requested internally for support to provide generators to the community, especially when it comes to elderly care facilities or sensitive social facilities".
Coun. Helen Miller voiced concerns over the project, mainly to due with weather.
"We don't know what the weather is going to be like on June 3. Last year if you remember it was scorching Hot in June, so I think Council needs to look at setting up or developing some kind of emergency plan of some sort to help people," she said.
SNEC say they will collaborate with Hydro One, and the Six Nations Fire Chief to ensure the proper information is given to community members on the project and that the Six Nations community stays safe during the power outage.
SNEC moved the first reading of the recommendation that was brought to council from Hydro One, asking for SNEC to support the project but have said they will wait to waive the second reading and pass the recommendation until the community plan has been put in place.
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