By Stephen Ogden
Almost 20 years have slipped by since the Tiny Township-based Why Wye Citizens Group proposed a Waste Management Strategic Plan. The proposal called for North Simcoe to become a “Demonstration Community” for all of Ontario. The proposal included the following components as an integral part of an overall waste management system:
1. As the County of Simcoe had newly acquired authority for waste management, a co-ordinated county-wide waste system would allow a pooling of experience, knowledge and resources, as a whole to open up a wider range of options with an increased financial base.
2. Citizens and politicians could work together. Where politicians may come and go, citizens’ groups that have been involved in the garbage issue for a considerable length of time have gained a tremendous amount of expertise and knowledge. We need to work together.
3. A commitment to the Ministry of the Environment’s directive to reduce 25% of the waste stream through recycling by 1992 and 50% by the year 2000.
4. A commitment to preserve our primary resources such as prime agricultural foodlands, air and water.
5. An understanding of the need for sustainable development through recognition of the sensitive balance between the need for economic growth and development in harmony with the environment.
6. A need to re-direct our thinking. A massive public education program to promote Reduction, Re-use, Recycle and Recovery.
7. A real commitment for change to push for better legislation to reduce excess packaging. To push for legislation for controls on the manufacturing sector to ensure products that can be recycled or re-used. To promote the development of industrial audits and waste exchanges – where by-products of one manufacturing process can be used as raw materials for someone else’s manufacturing process.
8. 100% Recovery/Recycling Facility to eventually recycle all of our waste stream. The goal is not only technically feasible but highly desirable.
9. A need for major initiatives to divert the waste stream from landfills and incinerators. We must take an inventory of existing landfills within the County and work to preserve that capacity, rather than developing new landfill sites.
10. The need for incentives for Research and Development to ensure a ready market for recyclable products. To ensure the development of the technology necessary to reach the goal of recycling 100% of our waste stream.

In case you haven’t noticed, the County of Simcoe took a different route over the last 20 years and have finally arrived almost back where they started from. Today we are in crisis because the County tells us we have little landfill capacity. The development of an Recovery/Recycling Facility remains a highly secretive undertaking hidden deep within the bowels of Simcoe County. It would appear the County’s vision is one of stay the course and ignore the obvious and inevitable.

On April 9, 2005, Miller Waste Systems wrote to Simcoe County: “Your staff have worked diligently on implementing an integrated waste strategy, its implementation takes time, there are many hurdles to overcome and it takes strong leadership from the staff and political levels to make it reality.”
What waste strategy? What hurdles? History is bound to repeat itself in the absence of strong transparent political leadership. Lets applaud and embrace the Why Wye citizens’ 20-year-old vision before time really does run out.

Monday February 8
Simcoe County Consultation Session on Waste Management Strategy: Nottawasaga Inn 6015 Highway 89, Crystal Ballroom, Alliston, open house with consultants 4:30 to 7 p.m., public meeting, 7 p.m.
Tuesday February 9
Simcoe County Consultation Session on Waste Management Strategy: Wasaga Beach RecPlex 1724 Mosley Street, Oakview Room, Wasaga Beach, open house with consultants 4:30 to 7 p.m., public meeting, 7 p.m.
Wednesday February 10
Simcoe County Consultation Session on Waste Management Strategy: North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre, 527 Lens Self Boulevard, Bill Thompson Room, Midland, open house with consultants 4:30 to 7 p.m., public meeting, 7 p.m.
Thursday February 11
Site 41 Community Monitoring Committee meets, 7 p.m., 130 Balm Beach Rd. W., Perkinsfield
Saturday February 20
Site 41 Group Potluck Social, Wyebridge Community Centre, $5 donation to cover rental, coffee/tea. Children free. Bring your own dish/cutlery/cup. Social starts at 5 p.m., we eat at 6 p.m., meeting and video to follow. Bring a friend. Call Bev at 705-322-1580 for more info
Saturday February 27
Law Union of Ontario conference, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.. Vicki Monague, Anne Ritchie-Nahuis, Steve Ogden, Jeff Monague, Chris Reid and Peter Rosenthal speak at 3:15-5 p.m. session on Site 41. Open to all – pay what you can ($40 suggested, $15 for seniors). More information
COUNCIL MEETINGS
Monday February 8
Clearview Council meets, 7 p.m., 217 Gideon Street, Stayner
Collingwood Council meets, 5 p m., 97 Hurontario Street, Collingwood.
New Tecumseth Council meets, 7 p.m. 10 Wellington Street, Alliston
Tiny Council meets, Committee of the Whole 9 a.m., Council, 7 p.m., 130 Balm Beach Rd. W., Perkinsfield
Penetanguishene special meeting of council, 7 p.m., , 10 Robert St. West, Penetanguishene
Tuesday February 9
Simcoe County Human Services Committee meets, 9 a.m., Administration Centre, Hwy. 26, Midhurst
Bradford West Gwillimbury Council meets, 7 p.m. 57 Holland St. E, Bradford
Wasaga Beach Council meets, 7 p.m., 30 Lewis Street, Wasaga Beach
Wednesday February 10
Simcoe County Corporate Services Committee meets, 9 a.m , Administration Centre, Hwy. 26, Midhurst
Oro-Medonte Council meets, 7 p.m., 148 Line 7 South, Oro (south of Hwy 11)
Penetanguishene Council meets, 7 p.m., 10 Robert St. West, Penetanguishene
Thursday February 11
Simcoe County Performance Management Committee meets, 9 a.m , Administration Centre, Hwy. 26, Midhurst.
Friday, February 12
Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority Board of Directors meets 9-12 a.m., 8195 8th Line, Utopia
Tuesday February 16
Springwater Council meets, 4 p.m. closed session, 5:30 p.m. open council, 2231 Nursery Rd., Midhurst
Bradford West Gwillimbury Council meets, 7 p.m. 57 Holland St. E, Bradford
Wasaga Beach Council meets, Committee of the Whole, 7 p.m., 30 Lewis Street, Wasaga Beach
Wednesday February 17
Essa Council meets, 6 p.m., 5786 County Rd. 21, Utopia
Innisfil Council meets, 7:15 p.m. 2101 Innisfil Beach Road, Innisfil
Oro-Medonte Council meets in Committee of the Whole, 9 a.m., 148 Line 7 South, Oro (south of Hwy 11)
Tay Council meets in Committee of the Whole,1 p.m. 450 Park Street, Victoria Harbour
Thursday February 18
Severn Council meets, 7:30 p.m., 1024 Hurlwood Lane, Orillia
Tuesday February 23
Wasaga Beach Council meets, 7 p.m., 30 Lewis Street, Wasaga Beach
Wednesday February 24
Penetanguishene Council meets, 7 p.m., 10 Robert St. West, Penetanguishene
Thursday February 25
Simcoe County Council meets, 9 a.m , Administration Centre, Hwy. 26, Midhurst
Friday February 26
Tiny Council meets, Committee of the Whole 9 a.m., Council, 2 p.m., 130 Balm Beach Rd. W., Perkinsfield
Monday March 1
Simcoe County waste strategy steering committee meets, 9 a.m., Administration Centre, Hwy. 26, Midhurst

Canadian crusader Maude Barlow has had to defend the life-or-death truth against corporate interests for years… And even today, it is a war un-won. At stake in her crusade is humanity’s own right to the liquid that sustains all life – balanced against powerful interests that insist water is just another resource to be bought and sold. In some countries where the corporate argument has prevailed, the poor can be barred from collecting rainwater.
Water On The Table is a character-driven, social-issue documentary by Liz Marshall that explores Canada’s relationship to its freshwater, arguably its most precious natural resource. The film asks the question: is water a commercial good like running-shoes or Coca-Cola? Or, is it a human right like air?
Water On The Table approaches this question through the eyes of Barlow – an “international water-warrior,” a lightning rod for the looming water crisis. She fought relentlessly – if in vain – to keep water off the table in the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement, and she served as the U.N. Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the General Assembly from 2008 – 2009.
“Water must be declared a public trust that belongs to the people, the ecosystem and the future, and preserved for all time and practice in law, as a human right,” Barlow says.
Water On The Table shadows Maude Barlow at the controversial tar sands in Alberta, in the halls of the United Nations, and protesting Site 41 – a local issue with global resonance – the camera follows Barlow and a cross-section of farmers, Mohawk First Nation activists, cottagers and seniors in Simcoe County, Ontario to protest dumpsite Site 41. After decades of contentiousness, the municipality of North Simcoe seemed finally set on green lighting a privately-administered land-fill on the far-reaching Alliston Aquifer, what one water expert, University of Heidelberg Professor William Shotyk, has called “the cleanest water in the world.” Barlow’s strategic campaign resulted in Walks For Water eventually attracting up to two thousand people and a proposal for a one year moratorium on the site. The attention on the issue lit a fire under both local and provincial governments. Water On The Table tracks the arc of this monumental struggle.
But more than an activist’s diary, Water On The Table is a poetic essay that intimately captures the public face of Maude Barlow as well as the unscripted woman behind the scenes. Her day-in-the-life is woven between dramatic, artfully crafted debates with several opponents in Canada and in the U.S. who argue that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it, and that water-rich Canada should bulk-export its water now, in the face of an imminent U.S. water crisis.
Full story

By Stephen Ogden WaterWatch
On Friday February 5th I met with Bruce Stanton MP. I wanted to bring Bruce up to date on what the public understood to be a complete halt of construction and development of waste facilities at Site 41 and what the County really meant.
I told Bruce about the County Key Messaging document, dated December 14th, revealing, in part, that retaining the Certificate of Approval (C of A) was the only way to truly ensure the County’s direction is maintained and the C of A provided the County with the authority to construct and develop the North Simcoe Landfill Site.
In addition, Simcoe County said the C of A confirmed the “sound science” behind the landfill, deemed it to be environmentally responsible and, in partnership with zoning by-laws, it has the effect of increasing the net value of the land.
Bruce was surprised and disappointed to hear this turn of events.
Bruce was also able to advise me that his efforts to have the Federal Government intervene last summer in the development of Site 41 resulted in a negative reaction from Ottawa. For me that did not come as a big surprise. After 24 years why would anyone expect the Feds to stand up for the purest water every measured on Earth?
We discussed what the County felt would be extensive public consultation to receive valuable input towards developing the 20-year waste diversion strategy. Only time will tell if the one-hour portion of the three public meetings in Alliston, Wasaga Beach and Midland, next week, will substitute for real and meaningful public participation. To my knowledge no consideration has been given as to how to get the input of the many seasonal residents and snow birds in the plans for “extensive” consultation now underway with Simcoe County’s residents.

From a meeting in Stroud, England – ideas on waste.

British-born scientist Dr Connett, who is professor of chemistry at St Lawrence University in New York, offered the stark warning that we would need an additional four planets of space to handle the waste generated in America alone.
“We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to,” he said.
“Waste is evidence that we are doing something wrong.”
He then outlined the damaging system of extraction, production, consumption and waste that has created the world’s spiraling problems, and argued that incineration does nothing to break the trend.
He also described the technology as wholly uneconomical – citing one Italian plant that cost 300 million euros to build with the creation of just 80 jobs.
Dr Connett became more animated as he delved into the damaging health implications of incineration – describing how four tons of waste emits one ton of toxic air emissions.
These, he warned, remain airbourne for lengthy periods and often slip through air pollution control equipment.
Having summed up the dangers to start, the second half of his talk explored the solutions as he outlined his ‘10 simple steps’ to zero waste.
Chief among these is the need to compost and reuse as much as possible.
He also called on industries to radically reduce packaging, as he put it: “If it can not be recycled, reused or composted, industry should not be making it in the 21st Century.”
Each point he made was backed up with real-world examples, such as San Francisco’s aim to achieve zero waste status by 2012, and how the Spanish town of Usurbil managed to radically reduce its residual waste levels in just seven months by recycling, reusing and composting.
Full story

From Bill French’s blog at Springwater Citizens Forum
On Monday Feb 8, Tuesday Feb 9 and Wednesday Feb 10 next week, the County are hosting information sessions. It is imperative that as many people as possible engage in this exercise. For the skeptics like me, the open houses are a charade. However it will do us no good not to participate. We cannot allow the arrogance of the county bureaucrats to control the destiny and continue with their ill fated plans for waste management. Your attendance will certainly be uplifting to those people on the Waste Management Strategy Advisory committee who are working hard for a visionary and long term sustainable solution.
Please come out closer to the 7:00 p.m. time slot as that is the only time there will be an open forum for questions. The first two and half hours is window dressing where the county’s stooges will try to lull you into a false sense of security. Don’t buy it for a second.
Feb. 8: Nottawasaga Inn 6015 Highway 89, Crystal Ballroom, Alliston, 4:30PM to 8:00PM
Feb. 9: Wasaga Beach RecPlex 1724 Mosley Street, Oakview Room, Wasaga Beach
4:30PM to 8:00PM
Feb.10: North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre, 527 Lens Self Boulevard, Bill Thompson Room, Midland, 4:30PM to 8:00PM

SunChips announced the introduction of a compostable chip bag yesterday. It will start appearing in stores in late March.
We are very pleased to get their support to help us advance composting and organics residuals recovery.
Susan Antler
Executive Director
The Compost Council of Canada

News release

http://www.compost.org/

The Green Party of Ontario – Simcoe North Constituency Association and the Simcoe North Federal Green Party Association will hold an annual general meeting this weekend.
The meeting will take place Sunday at 2 p.m. at Abbott’s of Craighurst (corner of Horseshoe Valley Road and Highway 93).
Guest speakers include Vicki Monague, one of the First Nations protesters at Site 41, and Gord McKay, chair of Zero Waste Simcoe, who will give an update on the group’s progress and representation on the Simcoe County waste management committee.
While everyone is welcome to attend, you must be a member in good standing of either association in order to be entitled to vote at the annual general meeting. The meeting will include financial reports and the election of executive officers.
The formal meetings will be followed by a meet and greet.

From Bill French’s blog at Springwater Citizens Forum

It appears that Stantec have been given a mandate to keep going in the same direction with some lip service that the County is a leader in waste management. Now that is a joke.
In business, we would at times establish a steering committee and they would discuss where we wanted to go in general terms and decide on a general vision. If the vision required outside expertise such as a company or consultant like Stantec, then so be it.
In the case of the County they engaged a consultant, directed them to come up with the vision and then established the Waste Advisory Committee. That is backwards and fundamentally flawed. That doesn’t make sense as the vision, by all the documentation, has been established by the consultant Stantec prior to the first meeting which I believe are simply marionettes of the County’s bureaucrats. In summary they propose to do the same as they have over the past number of years but try to divert a little more waste. It was stated by councillor Little that Site 41 might even become a transfer station. Did any of these guys at Stantec or at the County Administration work for GM?
The committee have excellent lay people with expertise and passion to really make the County a leader in Waste Management. It is unfortunate that their thoughts and ideas are somewhat dismissed in the dialogue.
I am also surprised that the County did not learn from its attempted control of the information session prior to the Site 41 County Moratorium back in the Spring of 2009. Within ten minutes the moderator (a high paid Lawyer) lost control and the meeting turned into what it should have been, an open dialogue and question period of the panel.

We are putting a Site 41 slide-show together to tell the story of a great environmental victory. We are going to construct a photo narrative that starts with the November 2008 Walk for Water, progresses through the May walk, the Anishinabe Kweag setting up camp, the tractor rally, the July walk, the blockade, the injunction, the arrests, the cavalcades, the Perkinsfield rally, the court action, the U of T rally, the OPP raid on the camp, the county council metings, the women’s water song, the scenes we can show from the Sacred Fire ceremony, Bill 32 – and the many great moments between. We need to portray the camp – the firekeepers, the cooks, the storytellers, the waste experts, the kids… And of course the great potluck suppers. What a summer that was! Send us the very best of your photos, the great images, the dramatic moments, the wonderful memories. Deadline February 15. IMPORTANT: with each photo, provide full details of who is in it, if you know the names, when it was taken, what is happening and your name as the photographer. Email to Bob Preston at rfpreston@rogers.com.