COAL TAR SUIT SETTLED

Well I'm glad that the lawsuit described two days ago here in the Advocate has been settled. Yesterday's K-W Record advises us in a very tiny article that the City of Kitchener and Everest College have settled the $800,000 lawsuit filed against the City. "The college operations and parking lot were disrupted by the $19 million cleanup during the winter of 2006-2007." One concern I have is the statement that the details of the settlement will not be made public. This is a typical political manoevre which is totally inappropriate. It is taxpayers money above and beyond the original cleanup cost and should be public knowledge. These same governments blatantly advise us that they need more tax money while cutting social services; yet they refuse to disclose tax expenditures. What kind of democracy is that? Furthermore if EVERY public expenditure were made public there would be much more public accountability of where OUR tax money goes.