Involve citizens, forget PR, professor emeritus advises

October 15, 2009

The following letter has been sent to Warden Tony Guergis and others at Simcoe County, as well as to the Site 41 Community Monitoring Committee by Emil O. Frind, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo

I would like to congratulate Simcoe Council for coming to the right decision on the contentious issue of Site 41. I am not a resident of Simcoe County, but I have closely followed developments and I may have some ideas to contribute.
I understand the question now is how to move forward from here. I hope that Council will seize this golden opportunity to rebuild the trust between the residents and Council that has suffered throughout this long process.
From my experience, the best way to rebuild that trust is to actively involve the residents in the decision-making process.
The Site 41 issue has now gone on for so long that it is probably wise to make a fresh start by re-examining the County’s needs for waste disposal. The fundamental question here is how to balance the need for waste disposal with the need to protect the high-quality groundwater. I am aware that there have been numerous meetings between citizens’ groups and County officials,
but I am not sure if the citizens were involved in any real decision-making capacity.
So my suggestion would be to form a Task Force of interested citizens, with representatives from Council and staff, and reporting directly to Council, and as a first step to charge that Task Force with examining this fundamental question. The Task Force’s work should lead to a re-examination of the whole waste issue, including ways to reduce and recycle waste more effectively in order to reduce the need for landfill space.
The citizens themselves will be the right body to tackle this question. New and innovative ways for dealing with waste have evolved in recent years while the Site 41 issue has been grinding on, and it may be a good idea to take advantage of these new ideas.
It will also be clear to all involved that the traditional approach of dealing with waste by simply building a new dump can be controversial and expensive.
Simcoe County and the City of Barrie are growing at a rapid rate, and this growth represents new challenges and opportunities to pursue improved waste management systems and policies.
Simcoe County’s policy of not importing or exporting waste deserves commendation, and so does the County’s organic waste composting program which diverts some waste from landfills.
However, much work still remains to be done in terms of waste reduction at the source. With its environmentally conscious citizens and the right approach, I believe that Simcoe County has the potential to become a leader in responsible and sustainable waste management in Canada.
I am a resident of the City of Waterloo and we are now going though a similar (but smaller-scale) experience involving the rehabilitation of a small lake. The initial design, imposed on the community by the authorities, met with strong opposition.
The solution was to form a Citizens’ Task Force including Council Members and staff, and reporting directly to City Council. The Task Force drew up specifications for the job and after going through the public tender process, recommended a consultant who was then hired by the City. There is now a harmonious working relationship between the residents, the Task Force, City staff, Council, and the consultant, and the project is on its way to completion.
Because of the extensive citizens’ involvement throughout, it is expected that the final design will be accepted by all sides – a win-win situation.
I should also note that from among the consultants’ bids, those that had a major PR component were rejected up front by the Task Force. People are now much better informed than ever before, and well-informed people don’t always appreciate efforts to re-educate them into the specific way of thinking that PR tries to impose on them. In my experience over the years, spending taxpayers’ money on PR exercises is not a good way to build trust. The key in this case was to actively involve the citizens in the decision-making process. I thought this approach might be worth considering also in Simcoe County.
I will be pleased to provide further details if desired.