No action on DS41 at council, but drama in the gallery

By Kate Harries WaterWatch October 27, 2009
Giant signs, calling for revocation of the Dump Site 41 Certificate of Approval and proper restoration of the site, greeted Simcoe County councillors and employees this morning.
As councillors entered the building, they were engaged by SDS41 supporters urging that they follow through on the resolution they passed last month – to halt construction and future development of a dump at Site 41, by asking the province to revoke the C of A. Several councilors expressed the view – as laid out in memos and statements from CAO Mark Aitken – that any decision will have to wait until the county’s waste strategy is finalized, next summer, in case the site is wanted for a waste management use (a transfer station, for instance).
That’s just not acceptable, councillors were told, because it’s a short step from any waste management use to reinstating a full-blown dump site C of A.
Around 70 SDS41 suppporters crowded into the public gallery, hoping that some councillor would articulate the public’s views.
But that was not to be.
Councillors at the last corporate services committee meeting allowed any action on Site 41 to be deflected to the next corporate services committee meeting, November 6.
So the best we got today was Tiny Township Mayor Peggy Breckenridge asking that the report to the next corporate services committee explain why it is that council is reluctant to get the Site 41 C of A revoked, why the excavation at Site 41 is not being completely filled in, and what is going to happen to the property.
(SDS41 supporters want the site to be a monument to an historic Canadian environmental struggle, incorporating agricultural, traditional First Nations and scientific research uses.)
Breckenridge, along with Tiny Deputy Mayor George Lawrence, opined that current winterizing at the site is satisfactory – to the surprise of SDS41 supporters who have read the reports posted by Stephen Ogden on at the Stop Dump Site 41 website.

PR footnote: Councillors paid no attention when SDS41 supporters unfurled a large ‘Restore and Revoke’ banner during the council meeting. That’s probably because the cameras were rolling – shooting a promotional video paid for by the taxpayers ($75,000) to explain the county’s services to the general public. Small surprise that the camera lingered lovingly on the profile of Essa Mayor David Guergis and ignored the drama in the gallery, as security guards ejected the protesters.
Shortly afterwards, the video group, escorted by a bevy of well-dressed PR types, scurried away, evading questions as to whether the environmental protest would be part of the final footage.