WEST MONTROSE DELAYS & EXCUSES KEEP ON COMING

This is precisely why 25 years later we are still waiting for the Chemtura site to be cleaned up and secondly why we are still waiting for Elmira's groundwater to be cleaned up. The bureaucrats and politicians in charge are masters of delay. In order to rise to the top they must be able to master the intricacies of neverending delay. They must embrace the maxim that if it's worth doing then it's worth doing over the longest possible time frame. One week ago I posted here about various ongoing delays by the Ontario M.O.E., the region of waterloo and by Woolwich Township.

Last Tuesday June 10th I expressed my discontent with Woolwich Councillors Bauman and Bryant not having given me the answers provided by the region of waterloo to my April 4, 2014 three pages of questions. I indicated last Tuesday that Councillor Bauman had advised me that they had received answers from both the Region and the Ministry of Environment and the township wished to look them over and compare answers before sending them on to me. This was a surprise to me as I didn't know the Councillors had sent my questions along to the M.O.E. as well. Nevertheless I clearly expressed my position that there was no reason not to send those answers along to me immediately. Yesterday morning in a CPAC meeting at the Township building I again asked Councillor Bauman for the responses to my three pages of questions. He stated that they were still waiting for the M.O.E.'s answers and so they would compare them before sending them along to me. While there has been a confusion in his answers nevertheless the point is very clear. The township while soliciting assistance from me in providing intelligent, detailed, technical questions to the Region are not readily willing to provide the answers to me on a timely basis.

I advised Councillor Bauman yesterday that if they are waiting for the M.O.E.'s response they could well be waiting for a year or more. To date it's been 2 1/2 months allegedly without a reply. As far as anyone at the Township intelligently being able to understand and compare the two answers both to each other and to the original questions; I am highly skeptical. Besides two current CPAC members I am not aware of any others with sufficient expertise to fully understand the issues. If such persons are currently working at the Township then it kind of begs the question why it took me to find the problem and then why I was asked to formulate the technical questions (3 pgs.) to be put to the Region of Waterloo.

I was blunt with Councillor Bauman yesterday morning. I don't work for free for the Township or anyone else unless I so choose. Get me whatever answers you've got now, or forget any further cooperation. I spent many, many hours in research and reading of technical documents to further educate myself on bacteria issues in water and then further hours formulating intelligent, penetrating questions to the Region. They are not "softball" questions but to the Region's credit they've responded. That said until I read and study their answers I don't know how seriously and honestly they have responded. Nor do I know how seriously and or negligently they've treated the health and safety of West Montrose residents. There are many more steps in this process to ensure that all Woolwich residents are drinking safe, clean water and it is not up to the uninformed at Woolwich Township to be assisting in delaying or avoiding this process. It also begs the question as to why the Township would bother asking for help and then intentionally stonewall, delay and provoke one of the very few willing to give them that help for free.