Is Democracy Dying in Clarington?

Last December our Clarington Council passed a new Procedural By-Law designed to limit participation by residents in council or committee meetings. Well, they say the reason was to enable a smoother "flow" to the meetings, but in reality, it appears to have been a not-so-subtle attempt to quell the rising tide of public voices speaking out against the EFW (which has been strongly supported by our 3 Regional representatives: Abernethy, Trim and Novak).

There have been voices speaking up about the unfairness and bullying tactics of our Regional Chair, Roger Anderson (and they were banned from speaking at Clarington Council in the future). We wonder if he has been bullying our 3 into submission or has simply convinced them that Clarington will reap untold benefits from the siting of an INCINERATOR in Clarington. Yes, just like the Water Pollution Control Plant built in Courtice, where Clarington will receive less than half ($183,000) of what was expected ($400,000) in tax income from that Regional project. Tax income from the EFW Incinerator has been estimated to be similar to the WPCP, but now even Regional Councillor Charlie Trim, Chair of Regional Works and strong supporter of the incinerator warns not to count any chickens (or money) before they're hatched.

No matter what the income from that proposed incinerator though, is it worth the risk of increased asthma in our children, increased cancers, untold health risks in our residents, or to contributing an increased toxic burden to our already overtaxed, overburdened airshed? Watchdog says an emphatic "NO!"

But will the voices of residents be heard? Residents have been told they can write a letter instead of making a public statement that would be heard by Council directly or on TV when meetings are televised. I've heard that when the clerk receives a letter to council stating concerns about the incinerator, it is summarized as a letter of 'concern' about the proposed EFW incinerator, and then published with a list of names of other residents who have written of their objections to this proposal. They don't deserve separate mention like the other correspondence to council? It appears not.

Not only did the new Procedural By-Law which came into effect in January 2008 limit citizens to 5 minutes (from the previous 10 minute limit) for a delegation to Council, but it also specifies that no clapping is allowed, unless the Mayor asks for it for something he approves. And you cannot use the words "bully" or "sheep" or "cronies" or goodness knows what else the Mayor may decide is offensive to his weak sensibilities.

The new By-Law also limited residents to speaking only at the Monday morning General Purpose and Administration Committee meetings, having to miss work or get a sitter and take time out of a busy day to get to Town Hall to speak (signing up the previous week first, of course). If they bring up a topic of concern to them at the GP&A meeting, then they are not allowed to speak to it at the evening Council meeting the following week. If they want to speak only at the evening Council meeting, then they can only do so if their topic is already listed on the Council Agenda. They cannot bring a concern to Council if it is not on the Agenda. Hmmmm. Nothing like doing all in their power to limit the voice of the public.

Now they have decided to put further limits on the public by limiting Presentations (different from delegations) to a maximum of 10 minutes (down from unlimited). This will only apply to the public, as staff or consultants or upper levels of government are excluded from this limit. It appears that the Mayor invited a citizen to make a presentation on waste matters to Council at a meeting a couple of weeks ago. The Mayor specified that this presentation would take approximately 1 hour, and the rest of Council voted to approve the presentation. AFTER Mr. Doug Anderson's timely and appropriate presentation, our intrepid Council decided to introduce this new amendment to their already citizen-limiting By-Law so that they could limit the public from speaking for more than 10 minutes, and that is ONLY if they are approved to give a presentation rather than a delegation (5 minutes).

Silly me. I thought part of Council's job description is to listen to the concerns of their residents. But it appears that only applies if we agree with them on the big issues. Otherwise they don't want to hear us. They can come up with all the excuses in the world, but what they are doing is intentionally shutting down the democratic process and limiting our free speech.

Clarington, leading the way toward the death of democracy. Shouldn't that replace the present signs we see upon entering this municipality? Sadly, yet another sign of the times.

How do you feel about the methodical annihilation of democratic processes designed to encourage the public to have a voice in decisions affecting our community?

Signs of the Times #7

On Tuesday, November 4, there will be a Joint Waste Management Group meeting in Newmarket. Why Newmarket? Well, because Durham Region is still partnered with York Region on the Incinerator Environmental Assessment. York pays half for the assessment, for now. And the joint group it appears, would still really prefer to have fewer rather than more Durham and especially Clarington residents present for these meetings. Residents are not allowed to ask questions, although they are allowed to make delegations. Residents really have no say in anything that is going on, because Regional Council(s) and Regional Chair Anderson are not obligated to listen, much less take heed of what residents have been saying for a long time. That is evident when Councillors rudely get up and walk out of the room or doodle in their notebooks when a resident speaks as a delegation. They don't even bother to hide their disinterest these days. They simply want to rush through the entire process.

On Tuesday in Newmarket, a presentation on the status of the "Review of Environmental Surveillance Practices" will be made, with a report entitled, "Study Protocol for the Review of International Best Practices of Environmental Surveillance for Energy-From-Waste Facilities". They'll also give an update presentation on the Status of the Environmental Biomonitoring and Sampling Program. And another on the Status of Site Specific Studies on or around the Site. (This from the agenda available on the Durham Region website)

Most residents don't have much confidence in these studies as they appear to be designed to get the result the consultants and Region want - results which will enable them to carry forward with their incinerator project. They've been asked to increase the study area, add human baseline studies and many other suggestions. They've even been asked to hold Public Information Centres to inform the public and allow the public to ask questions directly and give input, but those requests have been denied or ignored. It has been over a year since there have been any public information sessions held. Imagine that. And we are getting near the end of the so-called "studies". All of them so far, of course are POSITIVE for the EFW facility.

As for health studies, an "independent" peer reviewer has been hired by Dr. Kyle, Commissioner and Medical Officer of Health, to provide an 'independent review of the monitoring program'. That independent peer reviewer is Dr. Lesbia Smith, who was part of the Consultant's peer review team last year when they did their generic health study. And of course everything was hunky-dory. Dr. Smith has been known to have a friendly view of EFW in the past so why would that change now?

How about holding public information centres now? How about listening to the public for a change? Does the public have confidence in these studies? No. Did anyone read Ontario's Environmental Commissioner's report last week? The section entitled "Environmental Assessment: a vision lost" shows the deficiencies in the process, including the lack of a credible consultation process, lack of access by the public to key documents, weak monitoring, compliance and enforcement of EA conditions and much more.

If you can attend the Joint Waste Management Group meeting on Tuesday, please do. Tuesday, November 4, 2008, from 1 - 3 p.m. at York Region Administrative Centre, 17250 Yonge Street, Newmarket (in the Seminar Room). It is open to the public, although certainly not well advertised.

If you want to get the flavour of how little discussion takes place and how few questions are asked by members of the JWMG or Councillors, and how accepting they are of all the information they are given by consultants hired to guide this project through the EA process and get Provincial approvals, then attend this meeting and Durham Regional Works and Council meetings. Most motions to "move forward" are approved automatically.

Do they pull study results out of their butts? It evidently appears so to public scrutineers. Residents talk to each other. Why won't the Region talk to residents? And why won't they listen? Much of this EA process appears to be a charade and not worth the paper it is written on. You be the judge. Just one more sign of the times.