Becoming AWARE

By Kate Harries – Opinion – Bradford Times May 12 2010
“It’s a done deal.”
How often do we hear that, when a decision comes out of nowhere to dramatically change the way of life in our community?
It’s a done deal, we hear, for the Holland Marsh peaker plant. The Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority has adopted new flood lines calculated by the proponent that make the area not a floodplain any more, even though Hurricane Hazel put it under a metre of water. 
It’s a done deal, so we’re told, for County Road 91, a scenic route over the Niagara Escarpment, after Simcoe County and Clearview Township agreed in camera to hand a portion over to Walker Aggregates.
It was a done deal for Site 41 when final approval was given in a line item in Simcoe County’s 2009 budget, a move aimed at foiling opposition because no one knew about it. 
Last August, the matter of the budget line item approval was before a judge hearing Simcoe County’s injunction application in the Site 41 protest. The judge indicated to the county’s lawyer that he’d better bring forward convincing evidence that the approval was appropriate.
The next thing we knew, lawyers were huddling, and agreement was reached for a special meeting of County Council to vote on a one-year moratorium on the dump. The motion passed. Subsequently, councillors voted to shelve the project permanently.
Nothing is a done deal when people start paying attention and question what is actually happening. That’s part of the history behind a meeting held in Bradford on Saturday, May 1, a meeting that I chaired.
First, let me correct a misapprehension that appeared in this newspaper. There is no such thing as a Site 41 Coalition. Site 41 group members are joining other individuals and groups – like the Clearview Community Coalition, ROSSCORE and the Oro-Medonte Citizens Alliance – to bring new, fresh ideas to municipal politics.
We feel we need a county-wide view, just like the development industry. At the meeting, we talked about a recent study showing that, in the last election, 58.2 per cent of campaign contributions to elected council members in Bradford West Gwillimbury came from the development industry, with 81.4 per cent coming from outside BWG!
We live here. We need to mobilize to ensure that our views are heard too.
The first “Spring into Action” meeting was held in Barrie March 20. The Bradford meeting became the founding meeting, adopting the name AWARE Simcoe (Action Watchdog Affecting Residents Everywhere).
The main topic of discussion was Simcoe County’s new waste strategy – Midland Councillor Gord McKay, who is vice-chair of the county’s waste strategy committee, told us the waste strategy pays lip service to Zero Waste but unfortunately is on target for maintaining high levels of garbage that will require disposal. Hopefully that can be changed before the strategy is adopted by county council.
Further decisions on the role of AWARE Simcoe will be made at upcoming meetings – the next one is on Saturday, June 5, 10 a.m. -12:30 p.m. at the Utopia Community Hall in Essa. All welcome.
Kate Harries is a member of AWARE Simcoe