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.
While I agree they are not listening to the residents, they WILL listen in 2010 (Municipal Election time) and many of them will not like what they will hear!
ReplyDeleteAs for Anderson, the sooner someone mounts a major campaign to have an elected Chair so we can rid ourselves of this self-styled dictator, the better. Anyone interested in joining?
I agree wholeheartedly! What we need is a petition to forward to ALL current Regional Councillors to change the 'rules' prior to the next municipal elections. It is imperative that the highest office in the level of government that affects us the most actually be elected by the people, not by a hadfull of politicians engaged in horse-trading,
ReplyDeleteI know it seems like a long time between now and November, 2010, but we need to organize now if we are ever to see real democracy in our Regional level of government,
The Durham Regional Police Association has it right..."unelected. unaccountable, untouchable and out of touch"
ReplyDeleteThey are calling for and end to Anderson's "reign of error" and we should join them.
Not only does this guy impose his will, and his will only, on things like the current negotiations with our fabulous 'boys in blue', but he is having his way on building a toxic incinerator in Clarington (with the help of duds like Mayor Abernethy, and Councillors Trim and Novak) who suck up to this self-styed god. He must be stopped at the ballot box!
We in Durham Region could save ourselves a lot of money: we should simply appoint Chairman Anderson as the "god' (as in the previous post suggests)and not bother paying for all the other Regional Councilors!
ReplyDeleteThe only ones with the integrity to stand up to this demi-god are councilors Nicholson, Parish, Jordan, Litley and Cullen.
We in Durham Region could save ourselves a lot of money: we should simply appoint Chairman Anderson as the "god' (as in the previous post suggests)and not bother paying for all the other Regional Councilors!
ReplyDeleteThe only ones with the integrity to stand up to this demi-god are councilors Nicholson, Parish, Jordan, Litley and Cullen.
That's not fair. There are a few other councillors who have stood up to Chairman Anderson too, such as Lutczyk, Neal and sometimes Henry (Oshawa has the most who seem unafraid of opposing Anderson, followed by Ajax, oh and Mitchell sometimes too?
ReplyDeleteThen there is the fair representation issue. Oshawa seems against that as they would lose seats. Clarington seems happy with the status quo but I don't know why. Clarington is underrepresented like Ajax is but they don't seem to care. They always side with Anderson anyway even if it is bad for Clarington. It looks like they put the Region FIRST, and Clarington second. That isn't representation for Clarington.
Mayor Parish, Clarington is much worse off than Ajax. Clarington has NO representation at the Region. At least Ajax has you and Jordan and sometimes Crawford. Clarington has no one but councillors from other municipalities. How sad that is!
I watch Regional Council faithfully on Rogers Cable or occasionally in person if I'm able to sneak away from work on a Wednesday. I live in Clarington and can't wait for 2010 for the next municipal election.
This has been an interesting and somewhat lively discussion so far and I must agree with Chas C., in fact, Clarington really doesn't have any representation at Regional Council! While there are 3people elected and paid to represent us, truth is, they don't!
ReplyDeleteThe 2010 election is still two years away.
ReplyDeleteRoger Anderson will push this through before the voters ever get a say on him.
As for adding a new regional representive, I say, cut Bowmanville out of the current two, and then give them their own representive.
Why don't they have their own local representative in the first place. Local Wards 2&3 are made up of bowmanville and then north of it.