I HAVE TO ASSUME THAT THE ONTARIO MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT OPERATE CORRUPTLY ACROSS THE ENTIRE PROVINCE

I don't think that Elmira just got "lucky" with the sweetheart deals, private negotiations and neverending coverups whose purpose is to minimize both the culpability of private companies and the MOE as well as to minimize the extent of contamination hence the money spent to "remediate" it. Multi-national, multi-billion dollar companies actually find hiring lawyers far cheaper than spending the money they saved with improper or illegal waste disposal on belated cleanups. ...................................................................................................... Here in Elmira the number of lies, deceptions and environmental coverups are shocking. We had multiple sources to the destruction of our drinking water aquifers yet both Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario MOE found it better for themselves to blame everything on Uniroyal. No wonder Uniroyal initially fought like hell to share the blame but eventually the MOE knew that they would wear the responsibility for ignoring and condoning not only Nutrite and Varnicolor Chemical (Union St. & Lot 91) but also potentially Sanyo, McKee (slim?), Borg, Roxton, multiple gas stations, Thur, multiple municipal landfills in town, the old Shirt Factory on Park St. and more. Therefore the Ontario MOE made Uniroyal an offer they couldn't refuse and they didn't. ........................................................................................................................ The hydrogeological evidence is slowly becoming clearer as the multiple sources (hot spots) off the Uniroyal site are being exposed as the contaminant plumes shrink back to their source areas around town. That said all the guilty parties intentionally ignored shallow soil sampling at these many sites decades ago that could have clarified the truth as to who were responsible. .................................................................................................... The provincial Environment Ministry are just like so many other government ministries that boast "world class" competencies and qualifications. All provincial ministries were created to solve or at least mitigate various problems. Unfortunately these "problems" are often public problems with private causes. Think of the Ministry of Labour as well as the MOE. The Labour portfolio was intended to keep labour peace and harmony mostly for the benefit of the owners/employers while telling workers that their employment standards would improve. Just look at the mess they have made on issues such as mass poisonings of rubber workers both in Waterloo Region and across the province. Ditto with the Environment Ministry and mass poisonings of air and water across the province. The fact of the matter is that many of our provincial ministries are simply for appearances. Amazing for example as to how expensive our education system is with results that absolutely are not world class. Yet the beneficiaries within the system claim that all is well. Look at our Long Term Care (LTC) homes across the province. Covid-19 has exposed the provincial government's underfunding and pathetic enforcement of rules and regulations. Meanwhile the private owners of these LTC homes are laughing all the way to the bank while their donated to favourite politicians and parties run interference for them. The system is both broken and rotten. Just like the MOE/MECP. The rot is at the top and buying and installing complicit managers is partly how they manage it. Legislation and rules preventing both accountability and transparency are also necessary. Lastly Freedom of Information (FOI) is wishful thinking as is true Whistleblower legislation. Those in charge never stop lying or manipulating. It's in their best interests but not ours.