Tab for IPC fight exceeds $240K

By Nicole Million Midland Mirror April 7 2010
SIMCOE COUNTY – Members of the Stop Dump Site 41 group are outraged after discovering the County of Simcoe has apparently spent nearly a quarter-million dollars fighting the release of the calibrated computer model of the controversial landfill.
According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, the county has spent $240,000 resisting an Aug. 21, 2009, order by the province’s information and privacy commissioner (IPC) to obtain and release the so-called Modflow model.
Tiny Township resident Hugh Anson-Cartwright noted in a news release that money might just be “the tip of the iceberg.”
Anson-Cartwright, who uncovered the figure through an FOI request filed in June 2009, noted the total does not include legal and other costs since September 2009. Nor does it include staff time or costs arising from a county council vote in August 2009 to launch a legal challenge of the IPC order.
“It appears there is no limit to what county council is prepared to spend to stop taxpayers from knowing what is going on,” Anson Cartwright stated, adding 22 of 305 records received under the FOI request are invoices from law firm Graham, Wilson and Green totalling $112,668.61.
Anson-Cartwright has called on county councillors to explain why they are spending taxpayers’ dollars on withholding information from taxpayers.
Genivar, the county’s consultant, has refused to release the information, claiming it is proprietary.
In an e-mail to The Mirror, Rick Newlove, general manager of the county’s corporate services division, said the county was required to spend money on this legal issue because it does not own the Modflow model.
“The County of Simcoe would like to be very clear: the county does not have, and never did have, the Modflow model. Genivar does. The county received what we paid for – a report on the findings that includes all data, inputs and results which have been public information,” he said, adding these technical assurances led to full site approvals by the Ministry of Environment.
“The hydrogeological model itself is in the possession of Genivar, a leading Canadian engineering firm (that) was contracted by the County of Simcoe to determine the landfill effects on the property.”
The community monitoring committee, created in 1994 to serve as a type of watchdog on the now-abandoned landfill project, first requested the model from county council in June 2007. Another request by outspoken critic and Tiny Township resident Stephen Ogden was filed in September 2007, resulting in an order from the IPC that the county obtain the information from Genivar.
The county sought a judicial review of the matter, prompting the IPC to issue a full stay of its order on Feb. 12 until the review is completed.
Anson-Cartwright said he is concerned councillors are embarking on a “dangerous and costly journey in order to protect the alleged rights of a consultant.”
“This obsession with secrecy has become endemic in Simcoe County and must end now,” he said. “I am calling on county councillors to explain whether they are aware of all these costs, and do they really approve of these expenditures?”
Newlove said it’s unfortunate the facts around this issue have so often been overlooked or forgotten.
“The data has always been available to the public,” he said, adding the county, Ministry of Environment and the CMC participated in a review of the Modflow model with a mutually agreed-upon hydrogeologist in 2008.
“Dr Kerry Rowe found the results acceptable. The minutes of these meetings have always been public.”
Still not buying county’s position
TINY TOWNSHIP – Re: “Tab for IPC fight exceeds $240K,” The Mirror, April 8.
In response to Nicole Million’s article, I wish to add my two cents on the subject.
Simcoe County’s corporate services general manager argues the hydrogeological model is the possession of Genivar, a leading Canadian engineering firm. This position is questionable.
Here is what Colin Bhattacharjee, adjudicator of the Information and Privacy Commission, wrote in his Aug. 21, 2009, order: “In my view, the county is continuing an unacceptable pattern of conduct in which it is deliberately disassociating itself from key records relating to the environmental integrity of Site 41, despite the fact that these records were created by Jagger Hims with the use of taxpayers’ money.”
Mr. Newlove goes on to suggest the facts around this issue have been overlooked, suggesting, in fact, that “Dr. Kerry Rowe found the results acceptable” after participating in a review.
This statement would appear to convey the message that the model is no longer required. In my opinion, this is absolutely not the case.
The Site 41 community monitoring committee (CMC) continues to await satisfactory responses to several unsettled, serious issues in regards to violations of the certificate of approval. The results of the upcoming judicial review will be a milestone in the public’s ability to access any information from government.
Stephen Ogden
CMC alternate member
Tiny Township

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