Groundwater survey at centre of Site 41 dispute

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance
SIMCOE COUNTY – Simcoe County is seeking a judicial review of an Information and Privacy Commissioner order to force a consultant to release a controversial Site 41 report.
The IPC ordered the county Aug. 21 to “take all steps, including legal proceedings if necessary, to obtain the calibrated hydrogeological model and input data, known as the ModFlow model, from Jagger Hims.”
At its Aug. 25 meeting, county council directed staff to move ahead with obeying the order, the same day county council implemented a one-year moratorium. Subsequently, council decided to permanently shelve developing the proposed landfill.
But things haven’t been so simple when it comes to dealing with the specialized model being demanded by Site 41 Community Monitoring Committee member Stephen Ogden.
“We tried to do everything we could with Genivar (a landfill site developer which now owns Jagger Hims) to release the information. Do we go the route of suing a consultant?” said Simcoe County Warden Cal Patterson.
“For me, I’m trying to get my head around paying for information and not being able to get it. (But) we’ve done everything we can. From the experts and consultants, they’re saying if we sue, we’ll lose. There must have been something in the contract that said the information (gathered at Site 41) was theirs, not ours.”
That’s the line Genivar has been using as it has refused to release the calibrated model. It deems the work – done under a county contract – is proprietary information.
That argument could turn into an incredible loophole for municipalities that want to hide information from the public or worse, evade responsibility, said Ogden, who began fighting for the information two years ago.
“If we aren’t able to get the calibrated model, every municipality will argue they don’t need to release anything because they do it all through consultants. If the IPC loses this, they may as well go south,” he said.
“We pay money in taxes (but) the municipality hires a consultant, so they won’t be responsible. Site 41 was a critical issue in Simcoe County. This is an incredible issue for all of Ontario.”
Patterson said he understands the concern, but the county has no legal grounds to sue, which would be time-consuming, costly and likely unfruitful.
“We’re going to get a fair opinion from the court. It’s going to be less to do this than to sue Genivar, which would be a long, drawn-out process,” he said. “We’re asking the divisional court its opinion.”