The Orillia Packet & Times reports that, “Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop has lost his battle to have the landfill Site 41 certificate of approval revoked.”
“Dunlop’s private member’s bill to revoke the certificate died Thursday after Premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued the legislature until Monday. Dunlop has pledged to re-introduce the bill in the coming weeks.”
“Dunlop’s bill had unanimously passed second reading in the legislature last November. Normally, after second reading, a bill is sent to committee for review, where it can be amended, before being brought back to the legislature for third and final reading.”
Environment Minister John Gerretsen says if the county were to ask the province to revoke the Certificate of Approval, the province would. “But they’ve applied for a certificate that we looked at the time and over the last 20 years, and we feel that Site 41, from a scientific viewpoint, is an appropriate site…”
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow says, “the information Gerretsen is relying on to make his decision has never been peer reviewed and there is ample evidence that this critical information is wrong. To date, the Ministry of the Environment has never seen the MODFLOW. They reviewed the Jagger Hims report based on the modelling, but never looked at the underlying scientific measurements that support the conclusion that Site 41 is protective of the environment.”
The article highlights, “Although Simcoe County mothballed the landfill project after a lengthy blockade of the facility during the summer, the county still holds the certificate of approval. Site 41 opponents argue that as long as the certificate exists, the site could in the future be proposed again as a landfill, or sold to a private landfill company.”
Our March 3 media release ‘Environment Minister’s confidence in Site 41 misplaced. Liberals to allow prorogation to kill Bill 32’ can be read at http://canadians.org/media/water/2010/03-Mar-10.html.
Our ‘ACTION ALERT: Support Bill-32 to close Site 41’ is at http://canadians.org/action/2009/16-Nov-09.html.
