Today is a guest blog by Kristin R - a concerned resident of Clarington. She asks some good questions and makes some good points. What do you think? --CW
I was speaking with 2 people today that reside in Courtice. Both expressed their disgust with the proposed incinerator, and said they were going to shoot off some emails to Mary Novak, the Regional Councillor for our Ward. They were both surprised that Mary had not done something about this incinerator project before now.
Hmmm, why hasn’t Mary done anything about it? Last week she voted that she approved accepting the consultant recommendation of Clarington as the preferred site (thank goodness our local councillors voted differently).
We still do not know: the technology, vendor, business plan, where the bottom ash and highly toxic fly ash will go, among other things. The Clarington peer reviewers and staff have demonstrated that the Environmental Assessment done by the consultants is severely flawed. Yet, Mary voted to continue ahead with the ‘process’ in spite of of everything. Even more confusing to me is that Mary sits on Clarington’s Green Community Advisory Committee – I wonder how this incinerator fits into this committee’s mandate?
I am new to the whole local/regional political scene, so I may be way off base. But Mary’s decisions just don’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Nor do they seem to make sense to others in her ward. Mary is obviously a smart woman; she has been involved in politics for many years now and has seen many issues come and go. Please Mary, come to our rescue!
Our Clarington Councillors have to remember that they are charged with looking out for our best interests. Not the Region's best interests when it is to the detriment of Clarington residents. This is NOT NIMBY. We shouldn't be building an incinerator anywhere. It's the old school thinking and not progressive. It is regressive.
ReplyDeleteI think Mary is an opertunist and a sell-out. She used to simply be a fence-sitter, but I doubt very much is she has the guts to vote for her electorate and against the all-powerful Roger (Mao) Anderson. He has her dancing to his tune, the same as Abernothing and Trim
ReplyDeleteThis is purely political. I have lost all respect for our Mayor and two regional councillors. They don't speak for the people and don't even speak for their council. When their council takes a stand through a democratic vote, shouldn't they have to uphold that position at the Region?
ReplyDeleteSo far, not ONE of them has done so. We cannot blame our 4 local councillors for this. It is squarely on the shoulders of Mayor Abernethy and Councillors Novak and Trim. They'll wear it for the rest of this term and at election time. This is not the type of behaviour that can be forgotten. It is a slap in the face of all of us, including the rest of our council. What a legacy they'll leave.
How embarrassing. How shameful. Clarington has become the laughing stock of Durham Region for having absolutely NO representation at Regional Council.
We are not being represented at the Region by any of our Regional Councillors. Why is it that Oshawa City Council votes 8-2 to support Clarington's Council position and our Regional Councillors and the Mayor vote against us. Maybe it is time that Courtice joined with Oshawa to ensure proper representation?
ReplyDeleteWe will see tomorrow if our 3 regional representatives see the light and vote to delay approval of Courtice as the final site. Why don't they want to get all the information FIRST, before making their decision? Because they have already made up their minds that they WANT this incinerator in Clarington. That's why. They SAY they haven't made up their minds yet, but they promote it every chance they get - television, newspaper interviews, Board of Trade or meetings with other groups.
ReplyDeleteIt's time they told the truth and stopped treating us like imbeciles. It is degrading.
I hope they'll change their minds or I should say open their minds. Maybe they could redeem themselves and restore some faith in our local government. If they don't, I wouldn't expect to see them around next term. There is already a growing groundswell of opposition to what they are doing and it will only continue to grow. These three will have to go.
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
Well, she didn't come to our rescue. Even though our Clarington local councillors democratically passed the motion to defer the site selection until they had more information, our Regional Councillors did not support this at Regional Council. How democratic is that?
ReplyDeleteClarington residents are unfortunately now seeing the result of the misguided elections of Abernathy and Novak in 2006. Both are in way over their heads on this issue and will go with whatever Anderson says since neither is capable of making an informed decision of their own. I'm still scratching my head as to how these two defeated Don McArthur and Jim Schell, by FAR the more informed, experienced candidates.
ReplyDeleteIf they will not stand up for us, not stand up for Clarington council resolutions at the region, and think they know so much better than EVERYONE else who tries to educate them on the other side of incineration - but they won't listen - then they cannot expect the residents of Clarington to stand up for them. At this point, I'll vote for ANYONE other than Abernethy and Novak. Trim deserves the same treatment but I'm in Ward 2 so can't vote for him anyway (and wouldn't, after the shameful actions taken by all 3 of them).
ReplyDeleteGood news:
ReplyDeleteThe local councillors forced a vote tonight.
Clarington has been declared an unwilling host to the incinerator.
Unforunately it was a 4-3 decision of course, 4 local to 3 regional.
Will it make any difference, since Durham and York have already made the decision?
Great editorial by Kristin R.
ReplyDeleteI would like to point out that the Mayor, who has also voted to support the incinerator at every opportunity, is also on Clarington's Green Committee - I wonder just what they are doing?
Not only is he on the committee but he is chair, which is against procedure for such committees. Go figure.
Did you hear they just received over $16,000 in funding, too?
The Other One
Heard the Mayor just declared a conflict at the last GPA meeting and proceeded to speak to the issue when Councillor Robinson was lambasting people close to His Worship. If you want him out of office, go after him on this, it is a blatent contravention, ask any Municipal Clerk (other than Clarington's)
ReplyDeleteJohn in Clarington I attended the durham regional council meeting on jan 23/08.The silence from our three regional reps during the daylong incenerator debate was an eyeopener for me.In view of what happened I have absolutely no faith that these three [Abernethy;Trim;Novak] are capable of dealing with any issue affecting the welfare of the people they were elected to represent The Clarington residents.It is time the good people of Clarington keep their friends and neighbours informed about the lack of leadership shown by our three so called regional reps and come election time we must all work hard to defeat [Abernethy, Trim, Novak] in the next municipal election. .
ReplyDeleteProbably bad news in hopes to change the local councillors mind.
ReplyDeleteMayor Abernathy has invited 5 speakers to Monday's meeting. All are for incineration.
He didn't include any against incineration, and since it's not a GPA meeting, there will be no public comments.
When will he realize that it's over on Clarington's side. After all we're an unwilling host and he should do his job and listen to the local representives and not Roger Anderson.
I fill his priorities last year have been
1: Roger Anderson
2: Durham
3: Clarington
His priorities should be the other way around with the only reason Roger Anderson is number 1 when it comes time to put it to vote on a motion to have him replaced by an Elected chairman
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