My answers to OPAL’s questions 1. Are you opposed to a private dump in our community? Yes I have been opposed to this mega-landfill proposal since the day one announcement. I not only oppose this proposal but any future new landfill in Ontario and beyond. There are thousands of closed and leaking landfills and several hundred that have recently or about to be closed that need remediation and this can be done in a way that increases not only the safety of those closed landfills but adds to the available capacity. There is no landfill crisis and no need for new landfill footprints. What specific action have you taken to prevent it from coming? I have worked alongside OPAL since it was formed and currently stand as a director. I have a few thousand hours of research under my hat now – attended most events – and maintained the opposition to Walker landfill proposal as a presence on social media – I have attended many municipal and County council meetings regarding the landfill – wrote letters to the editor – I am an administrator on the DumpBusters FB page – contributed many memes to the cyber world – helped to boost the Rogers TV video of Mr Farlows’ fishing trip to over 3,000 views – I have worked behind the scenes to try and steer actions by councils and staff towards the fight. I have proposed 2 resolution to Ingersoll council on banning leachate and excess soils – I partnered with Steve McSwiggan and presented a resolution to County Council banning leachate treatment from private landfills in all Oxford County WWTF’s – I am known for keeping the pressure on local politicians and administration especially at the County and Locally to put up legislative roadblocks and keep information current on the respective websites. I opened up the path for the funding by Ingersoll council that Councillor Fortner presented at budget time and helped to overcome the stiff resistance to funding OPAL and the Alliance. In addition to joining the thousands of others that have signed petitions I have also commented on the ToR’s and was the contributor to OPAL’s Social and Economic response to the ToR – And I have not quit. 2. What will you do as a municipal politician in the next term to see that the dump does not happen? As Mayor of Ingersoll I would put forward Mayor Comiskey’s resolution again to ban private landfills in Ontario and word the resolution so staff are instructed to make it happen, not leave it for 5 months while deciding we need another year of Sustainability Study. As Mayor I would introduce a resolution directing Ingersoll staff to prepare a bylaw to ban cross border servicing of new industrial or commercial liquid waste generators as per Ingersoll’s rights under the County plan. As Mayor I would introduce a ban on the importation of excess and contaminated soils for private use. As Mayor of Ingersoll I will be on a first name basis with every Deputy Minister and Senior Bureaucrat that even has a smidgen of input in banning landfills and or turning down the Walker Application based on need or any other social economic or environmental issue. The AMO will hear my voice as I join with others to increase a municipalities control over land use. There will be as many municipal road blocks to this proposal as residents and myself can bring forth. 3. What pieces of legislation and /or regulation need to be changed so that a dump like this cannot happen ever? Ban landfills provincially – Strengthen remediation requirements for pits and quarries – Remediate first – look for alternate uses after – increase the royalties to municipalities so they can afford to fight off these interlopers – the landfill act itself – Ban SLAPP suits – ban landfills in active or closed quarries. Strengthen the municipal act to give more powers to municipalities and require mega projects like this to have the agreement of all neighbouring councils 4. With the Salford Waste facility expected to be full in upcoming decades, what long-term solutions do you see for waste management that would make a future dump, municipal or private unnecessary? I can not foresee a day in the next 100 years, when the Salford landfill will be full – It is more likely to be operated eventually as a part time landfill full time resource recovery centre. 5. How will you effectively respond to any decision by the Minister of the Environment around the dump, be it his decision to block it, to demand further study before allowing it, or allowing it as proposed? The effectiveness would be determined by the actions taken. I believe that anything short of a rejection will require full opposition from residents’, local and provincial politicians, the media and businesses in Oxford and area. It would need to be loud enough to hear in Ottawa and across North America and would likely touch off a NEW way to fight a mega-landfill Even a full rejection does not stop another project from being proposed so a full block would still require political pressure from municipalities to have the province ban landfills from fractured quarries and aggregate pits at the least. Tim Lobzun
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 00:00:13 +0000
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