Councillors will decide if community will be willing host
May 11, 2009 - 03:20 PM
By Keith Gilligan
CLARINGTON -- A handful of protestors gathered outside the Clarington municipal building this morning, opposed to the municipality being a willing host for an incinerator.
Clarington councillors will debate a motion Monday night that reverses its previous position that it's an unwilling host for an incinerator.
"It's so brutally important the community know what's going on," said Ward 1 Councillor Adrian Foster. "We've felt like a freight train is coming down the tracks and we're in the way."
Ward 2 Councillor Ron Hooper and Ward 3 Councillor Willie Woo were also at the event.
The rally was organized by CUPE Ontario, the CAW, and Prevent Cancer Now.
Coun. Foster referred to the movie Field of Dreams and the line 'If you build it, he will come.'
"If they build it, they will certainly be coming. The trucks will be coming for half a century," Coun. Foster said. "Clarington's field of dreams will likely become our own field of nightmares."
Dr. Aubrey Kassirer, a family doctor in Clarington, said the municipality already has a "compromised air shed. We don't want an incinerator here."
Physicians around the world are opposed to incinerators, Dr. Kassirer said.
"The quality of air in Ontario, Canada and the world will be affected by our garbage can in the sky," he said. "I can easily say that I don't want this incinerator anywhere near my family or the patients that I care for every day."
Clarington councillors who support an incinerator were "selling out" the community, he said.
"We're being traded for financial considerations," he said, pointing to the municipality receiving $2 per tonne for waste trucked to the incinerator from outside of Durham and York regions and sewer upgrades for the energy park.
Dave Renaud, a Courtice resident and president of the CAW's environmental council, said, "All labour unions across Canada are opposed to incineration."
Pushing extended producer reliability would be a step towards no waste being generated, Mr. Renaud stated.
"EPR would change the way we deal with waste."
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