180 citizens sign call for public meetings on waste strategy

UPDATE: Warden agrees to place Ogden letter on agenda of Jan. 28 special meeting of council
ELMVALE ON, January 25 – Simcoe County’s proposed consultation process for the waste management strategy it is going to adopt for the next 20 years is not good enough. So say more than 180 citizens who have signed a letter calling on Warden Cal Patterson to get the next meeting of county council – on Tuesday January 26 – to open the process up.
The county is planning open-house sessions conducted by consultant Stantec, provisionally set for February 8 [Cookstown or Stroud], February 9 [Stayner], and February 10 [Midland] and May 3 [Severn or Coldwater], May 4 [Alliston] and May 5 [Midhurst].
The citizens are calling for these open-house sessions to be public meetings, at which people can come together as a community and hear what the County is proposing and what their neighbours have to say. Instead of having the consultant deal with the public, the citizens are calling on Simcoe County’s waste strategy steering committee members to attend the public meetings so they can hear from the public and answer questions.  
“What is presently proposed is fundamentally undemocratic,” said Tiny Township resident Stephen Ogden, who has experience of the open house format in the Dump Site 41 consultation process. “The County’s account of what happened was completely at odds with what the public heard and understood,” Ogden recalls. “The result was a deep and abiding mistrust of the County.”
The letter to Mayor Patterson states: “The open house format is designed by consultants to benefit consultants.”           
The decisions that are made now on how Simcoe County will handle its waste are of critical importance, Ogden said. He called on Patterson to set up a consultation process  that is “transparent, fair and objective.”
Waste strategy steering committee chair Gord Wauchope – who was copied on the letter – has replied, stating that he will look into the matter.
“We consider this to be a positive response and await further action,” Ogden said.
Text of letter, names