We did it! Today Simcoe County Council voted 22-10, a weighted voted of 83-39 on a motion in favour of a one-year moratorium, put forward by Tiny Township Mayor Peggy Breckenridge and seconded by New Tecumseth Mayor Mike MacEachern. “It was a miracle of coming together,” said Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians.
“All your hard work paid off,” Anne Ritchie Nahuis told jubilant supporters at the county administration centre in Midhurst.
“Thank you to everybody for standing with the First Nations people to stop this – I’m very very pleased,” said Vicki Monague of Beausoleil Island First Nation.
Council voted to drop the claim for damages against Monague and Ritchie Nahuis.
Adjala-Tosorontio Deputy Mayor Doug Little will be proposing a motion to the September meeting of county council to permanently close down Dump Site 41.
Full report of today’s council meeting tomorrow.
It’s time to celebrate!
Check out the latest from the Twitter feed here.
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And they say you can’t beat city hall…”they” learned something today!
Great job everyone, thanks to all who camped out for so long and all the others that supported this cause. From the words of Tony’s mailing County of Simcoe residents are HEROES!!
This is without a doubt the best news I’ve heard in a long time. Congrats to all. Battle won, now on to win the war!!
The Barrie and District Raging Grannies are celebrating with all of you from the soles of our boots to the tops of our crazy hats (and with everything that shakes, rattles, rolls and wobbles in between).
Who said you can’t fight City Hall, so there’s no point in even trying? As our signature song says:
“We will not be silent, when something’s going wrong”
I met the keeper of the fire last week, amongst other inspirational people at the protest site. His name is Johnny. This young man inspired me and I wish him well on his journey of learning, teaching and leadership. Bravo to all people who stood, especially those who spent overnights at the camp.
Chi-Meegwetch
All that is necessary for evil to exist in the world
Is for good people to do nothing ….
So many good people worked so hard and so long to persuade those in power to do the right thing … we did not stand by idly …
Thanks to all the good people … together we stood and will continue to stand for what is right!
New ways to deal with garbage … and create jobs!
I forgot … an excellent article in Saturday, August 22nd.’s Globe and Mail’s Business section titled Garbage In Energy Out about a Canadian company that uses a gasification process to turn trash to energy.
The Ottawa company Plasco Energy Group Inc. takes residential garbage, removes the metals for recycling, shreds the waste, feeds it onto a conveyor belt for delivery to plasma-gasification system that transforms the garbage into a synthetic gas used to generate electricity … without emitting greenhouse gases … the process produces by-product like sulphur, water and a solid aggregate.
Read the whole article just Google Garbage In Energy Out article in Globe and Mail
Great News. Ina was right- “the truth has prevailed” because attempts to hide the truth were exposed. Congratulations to all from the Georgian Baykeeper for Georgian Bay Forever.
Way to go ! that battle is won but the war continues. AT least now this will be an election issue again. It should be very interesting. I’m sure the mayors who vote to keep working will be GONE, GONE, BYE BYE.
Congratulations to all who have helped to get this Moratorium and hopefully the end of the dump project period. We have so many to thank for all their committments to this in the last months as well as those who have never given up over the last 30 years to bring this about,
The Power of one is awesome. Thanks Stephen for never giving up on this and also Gord and Darrell. They have never faltered in their convictions and we owe them a lot for all the time and effort they have given to keeping up the pressure and making us all aware of the danger to our Water, for now and the future generations. To day was an Historic day in Simcoe County and all who have helped with these protests are Heroes, we won’t forget. We continue to support you and pray for a Permanent end to Dump Site 41.
CONGRATULATION, WELL DONE TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS HISTORIC VICTORY. I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING YOUR BATTLE VIA THE WEB SITE AND EMAIL UPDATES. YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION TO OTHER GROUPS WHO TAKE ON THE ‘BIG BOYS’.
I HAVE TASTED YOUR WATER AND IT IS THE BEST. HOPEFULLY IT WILL NOW BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO ITS UNPOLLUTED STATE.
Results of yesterday’s vote:
Those in FAVOUR of moratorium:
Doug Little, Adjala-Tosorontio deputy mayor
Mike MacEachern, Mayor of New Tecumseth
Rick Milne, Deputy mayor of New Tecumseth
Cal Patterson, Mayor of Wasaga Beach mayor
Tom Walsh, Mayor of Adjala- Tosorontio
Scott Warnock, Mayor of Tay Township
Peggy Breckenridge, Mayor of Tiny Township
Chris Carrier, Mayor of Collingwood
Basil Clarke, Deputy mayor of Ramara Township
Judith Cox, Deputy mayor of Severn Township
Terry Dowdall, Deputy mayor of Essa Township
James Downer, Mayor of Midland
Anita Dubeau, Mayor of Penetanguishene
Bill Duffy, Mayor of Ramara Township
David Foster, Deputy mayor of Wasaga Beach
Ruth Hackney, Deputy mayor of Midland
Ralph Hough, Deputy mayor of Oro-Medonte
Harry Hughes, Mayor of Oro-Medonte
Brian Jackson, Mayor of Innisfil
Michael Ladouceur, Deputy mayor of Tay Township
George Lawrence, Deputy mayor of Tiny Township
Doug Leroux, Deputy mayor of Penetanguishene
Those AGAINST moratorium:
Dennis Roughley, Deputy mayor of Bradford West Gwillimbury
Alicia Savage, Deputy mayor of Clearview Township
Phil Sled, Mayor of Severn Township
Gord Wauchope, Deputy mayor of Innisfil
Doug White, Mayor of Bradford West Gwillimbury
Sandra Cooper, Deputy mayor of Collingwood
Ken Ferguson, Mayor of Clearview Township
Warden Tony Guergis, Mayor of Springwater Township
Dave Guergis, Mayor of Essa Township
Tony Hope, Deputy mayor of Springwater Township
Make sure you send letters to those who supported the moratorium, thanking them for their vote…and of course, keep pressure on those who opposed the moratorium to pass the vote being put forth by Doug Little at the next meeting.
Taken from the Barrie Examiner.
Boozhoo Nindiwaymaaginidoog….
(that means Hello My Relatives.. we are All Related)
It has been my honour to have met and talked and stood strong with everyone at this Site… Site 41 has been Halted for now and the work accomplished is Exceptional…hurray for all of us..
It is a first step toward an excellent future for our children and Grandchildren and the generations yet unborn… We will continue to do what we need to do to ensure a Safe future and honour the gifts that we all share…Clean Water, Clean Air, Everything we need for Mino Bimaadiziwin…. a Good Life.
I am in the north again where First Nations communities are facing “exploration and development” from mining companies… those who say “we will not harm the water….”
And there is the on-going struggle to ensure that First Nations communities HAVE clean water… there are about 36 communities across Canada where there is NO SAFE DRINKING WATER… what would the press do if there were 36 “Canadian” communities without safe drinking water…
so the work continues…
I have left Site 41 for now… but may be there for pot luck on Saturday if all goes well…
You are ALL deep in my heart, and will remain so forever…
Baamaapii
WahWahbiginojii
It was an amazing experience to be there amongst all of the folks who have worked so hard to get to this point. I feel that it brought so many groups of citizens together in a common goal I was proud to be a part of it. We must remain vigilant thought. This is only the first step.
The Examiner list is NOT Correct. One certain error is the inclusion of Tony Hope among those voting against the moratorium
This is not the case: Tony supported the moratorium and has always carried out his council and his constituents’ instructions in this matter.
For some reason neither The Examiner nor Goldhawk have corrected this very hurtful and insulting mistake.
The only good thing is that anyone who knows Mr Hope knows, without checking, that he did the right thing.
Congratulations Dump Resisters…beyond all the hyperbole that came from yesterday’s vote, the question many councillors kept asking was – “What are the alternatives to landfills?” Could we as a concerned citizen’s group be future zero-waste liasons for our communities and hold public meetings/workshops (possibly at our local libraries or better yet, City Hall) to explain the alternatives, like how to get Simcoe Counties waste reduction to 100% by 2012.
Obviously, garbage industrialists (with there lobbyists and political lackies) will be pushing hard for incinerators or exporting garbage to other counties but if we could head them off by showing how recycling, reducing, reusing and composting (through anaerobic digestion, mechanical biological treatment with bio-gas generation, or simply, “WasteLess” products)is the more cheaper (taxpayers should be happy after this $12mil fiasco), cleaner and the most successful of the alternatives, it will make our task that much more easier for everyone to follow the zero-waste script. Alternatives to landfills can be read on Wikipedia or from Halifax Municipality Web-site-
Click: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill
Click:http://www.halifax.ca/wrms/alternatives.html
The naysayers will call 100% waste diversion impossible but your already @ 60% (KUDOS!) and leading the rest of the province. Do we need a county tax on overpackaged products or just go to the packaging companies and stay “STOP!”-we’re not buying this anymore. (Ontario already has a 5 cent tax on plastic bags-now law!!) Do we really need to support the polysterene industry by selling our fruits at farmer’s markets in plastic containers when good old recyclable cardboard will do.
Yes, banning bottled water in schools and offices is a start, but many people can’t afford those metal containers @ $25 dollars a flask- though the price is coming down – could fundraising provide incentives to bring the costs of these containers down further or could we just make our own in this province.
We have learned so much from this landfill struggle…can we continue to teach sustainability to our friends, families, neighbours and elected officials? As the vote was being counted Monday afternoon, I witnessed a line-up of cars leaving Simcoe County Chambers with just one driver. Can we promote car-pools to and from work with recyclable coffee mugs funded by the city? Can we build bike lanes and install bike racks at city hall to get those office workers to and from work?? But the winters you say…what about a City Hall bus to transport workers to and from Kiss & Rides (drop off points) close to where employees live…imagine how far the $12 million dollars could have gone to get people out of their cars, away from drive-thrus that cont. to breed green-house gases and coffee cup lids that ultimately go into…landfills!
Give Simcoe County (and the world) sustainable choices and they will come. I have never owned a car and walk, bus and ride a bike year round…and during T.O’s garbage strike tried valiantly to produce NO GARBAGE. I look forward to hearing where our success takes us! There is no water (or air) to waste! Let’s continue building a sustainable Earth community with no garbage and again, congratulations to all of you for saving the Alliston Aquifer.
Toronto (and all of Canada) owes you a debt of gratitude for your amazing feat.
In Solidarity,
Davis Mirza
Toronto
[...] further investigate the environmental impacts on the surrounding area, including the purest water, Simcoe County Council voted in favour for an one year moratorium to halt activities of North Simcoe Landfill (Dump Site 41). Also a motion was tabled for next month [...]
I am so disappointed that in this day and age an accurate list of who voted for or against is not available 5 minutes after the vote which involved 32 people. Is Simcoe County a province of Afghanistan??? One would almost think so. To have the Barrie Examiner release bogus information like this on top of the arrogance of County management is nothing short of an affront to democracy and good government. If nothing else this proves our system is broken and needs our efforts to fix and change many of the archaic rules which allows a few elected politicians to screw the majority for years. We need change and a slate of candidates in next years elections who will pledge to change the wrongs that have been exposed in our system of government.
Thank you so much to my lawyers, Peter Rosenthal and Chris Reid who fought with County Lawyers to ensure this moratorium, injunction/lawsuit and the IPC inquiry to the Calibrated ModFlow be on the agenda in this Council meetings as per the resolution all parties agreed to in Court in my case of opposing the injunction. If it wasn’t for that, there was no way the moratorium would have been on the agenda, as the County was going to remove it.
THANK YOU PETER AND CHRIS! The lawyers who have worked on Site 41 so diligently!
Miigwetch,
Vicki
Thankyou all for your hard struggle on this.
This is my mother’s turf, Midland and Honey Harbour, and as a child, we’d venture to Beausoliel by boat from Robert’s Island for the sweetest spring water in the world.
It’s a beautiful island as it’s name suggests and countless numbers have enjoyed it’s precious pure resource.
It’s an abomination that there’d be plans to pollute it forever.
This is native land and the gem of cottage country.
It’s also always been the main campground in the area.
How could Parks Canada possibly allow the idea of such harm.
Are some politicians’ minds so polluted that threatening the well used pristine landscape of Beausoliel could ever seem like a good idea?!?!
Thankyou.
Confounded but Relieved.