ARE REGIONAL COUNCILLORS STUPID, TONE DEAF OR ALL TRYING TO LOSE IN THIS FALLS MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS?

 

You almost have to think that when everybody are unhappy with the Region's water decisions that maybe they really are all trying to get the boot this fall. Don't they know that they can simply say "I've had enough of the good times and am uninterested in the bad times so goodbye. "? 

Firstly they are about to take 15 litres per second more water from Wilmot wells. This item should not even be on the table until AFTER they have committed to drilling old wells deeper or new wells for Wilmot residents whose wells are no longer reliably providing water. This "commitment" does not mean either verbally or in writing because they are proven liars and deceivers.  This "commitment" means the cheque or cash is in the hands of the residents desperately needing them for immediate construction of new or deeper wells.

How clear has it become that the developers and builders are the tail wagging the dog? Man we've recently seen Woolwich Township cut and run from a single wealthy individual whose wants, not needs, for an enclosed, full size, full amenities ice rink on his property buffaloed them. Now over and over again we publicly see developers and builders telling the Region what to do and the difference between us and them is that the Region says O.K. to them. 

Basically the developers and builders have given the Region of Waterloo a deadline and it is June 3/26. That is this coming Wednesday and presumably will occur at the regional council meeting. That is when those in charge will find out if their specific projects have been allocated enough water to go ahead and start building, essentially after the cities give them the building permits and or other required documentation. Make no doubt any failure by the Region to do so this Wednesday will likely result in legal action by those far more entitled than you or I to continue making millions of dollars building homes, apartments, townhouses etc. for the Region's no longer grossly expanding population. Federal government policies finally stopping mass unneeded immigration have been enacted. That said allegedly there were only 90 new residents in Waterloo Region last year which seems unbelievable in the opposite direction of what we've had for the last twenty to fourty years.  

Politicians as well as those in charge may have gone too far this time as many of us have lost all trust in those who run the Region of Waterloo. Today's K-W Record have several water articles keeping us informed as to the latest nonsense going on.

THE TALK AND THE ROUND & ROUND IN CIRCLES NEVER ENDS, IT JUST GOES ON FOREVER

 

The Woolwich Observer published a Letter To The Editor from Ms. Bryant that was commenting on an earlier article in the Observer (Oct. 12/23) titled "Lanxess study finds Canagagigue contaminants pose no unacceptable risk". Ms. Bryant's Letter To The Editor one week later is titled "Canagagigue hotspots should be addressed".  Well yes as a matter of fact they should and only a wealthy corporation with more money than ethics could think otherwise. 

There is of course no health study to back up the Risk Assessment claims of no unacceptable risk. There is however reams of paper involved in a number of Draft reports as well as in the possibly final report. As stated lots of contaminants were found some 1,000 times higher than regulated standards. These contaminants are long proven Persistent Organic Pollutants (Pops) including DDT, DDD, DDE, dioxins and furans, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), PCBs and mercury. They are found in the bottom of the Creek as sediments as well as along the Creek as creekbank soils plus further away from the Creek as Floodplain soils. Finally they are also found in members of the Benthic community that lives within the sediment and finally via bioaccumulation have moved up the food chain into fish tissues. These fish of course are also predated upon by birds of prey, raccoons, foxes, coyotes and more. Yes the fish tissue concentrations also exceed published health criteria  None of this seems to matter to the suits merely doing the job they were paid to do.

This situation is the result of money talking. The successor polluter has more money for legal battles than the Township, the Ministry of Environment (MECP) or anybody else involved. They are not afraid to spend it to save themselves millions in further cleanup costs. In my opinion both human health and environmental health for them are not nearly the priority that shareholders' profits are. Money talks!

THE BRASS, THE AUDACITY, THE NERVE & SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT IS BOTH SHOCKING AND DISGRACEFUL

 

This is not the first time that hockey of all things has determined the makeup of Woolwich Council. The irony is that Mayor Shantz's initial win (20 years ago?) as a councillor over Pat McLean was not due to any remote superior character, education or experience but due to Sandy Shantz publicly supporting a two ice rink recreation centre whereas Pat wanted but one. Now as Sandy is not running again in this falls municipal election she won't lose her seat over her decision to permit the new, private rink to stay. The same may not be said for other councillors whether in favour or against allowing the new rink near Bloomingdale to stay despite the property owner pretty much literally waving their middle finger at Woolwich Council.

It was a calculated, in your face slap to both councillors and planning staff as the very well to do property owner decided to simply ignore zoning and by-law issues by building his personal, fully enclosed and fully equipped ice rink supposedly for his family and friends only versus for commercial purposes. Time will tell as this person has demonstrated a willingness to publicly flip the middle finger at Woolwich Council.

There are many issues involved in this situation and frankly despite my harsh criticism of Woolwich Council environmentally, I almost feel sorry for them with this no win scenario.  Issues include individual's property rights versus the encroachment and expansion of government influence and authority. Issues also unfortunately include the Rule of Law whereby each and every citizen is to be treated equally before the law.  What we clearly see here is an individual with the money and influence simply confronting a municipal government and effectively telling them to #uck off or else I'll see you in court or at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) or both. No subtlety, no apology, no oops I goofed. Any other average citizen treating Council this way would have the Township's lawyers all over them and a very expensive, possibly bankrupt inducing legal battle before them. 

Part of my sympathy for the individual involved has to do with most municipal council's including Woolwich historically lying, deceiving and bullying citizens whenever it pleases them. Think of the Rattasids among others who for a while owned the former Paleshi garage and auto wrecking yard and how they were treated by staff and council. Clearly this individual in Bloomingdale whether through good luck, good management or whatever has the financial means to push back hard and has chosen to do so. His is a classic case of do what you damn well please on your own (very large) property and then ask for forgiveness afterwards with little to no sincerity and a blatant in your face attitude because clearly his lawyers have told him that an expensive legal battle for the Township during an election year will not be wanted by them. 

Frankly half of this looks good on a municipal Township with a long history of both stupidity and arrogance. It's just unfortunate that it sends the message that yes indeed money does put you above the law. Just ask a couple of guys by the name of Nygard and Stronach about how long money can buy you legal protection in this country.

     

  

LOCAL GOOD NEWS: CANAGAGIGUE CREEK IS AS TOXIC AS IT'S BEEN FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS BUT BETTER THAN IT WAS THIRTY TO FOURTY YEARS AGO

 

The headline above demonstrates what passes for environmental cleanup and improvement in Woolwich Township particularly between polluters and politicians.

These results are from the recently released 2025 Biomonitoring Report. DDT and metabolites (mostly DDE) in fish tissues are above the CCME (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment) Guidelines of 14 ng/g for several reaches in the Creek on the Lanxess (Uniroyal) property.  The guideline is 14 ng/g and the concentrations in Shiners and Bluntnose Minnows averaged between 50 and 70 ng/g, well above guidelines.  

PCB concentrations in fish tissues were all below the CCME Guidelines except for the upstream reach which is interesting. What is just upstream from the former Uniroyal that could have discharged PCBs in the past?

Dioxins and furans concentrations in fish tissues were above the CCME Guidelines of .71 pg/g TEQ (Toxic Equivalency) downstream but below them upstream from Lanxess/Uniroyal.  The downstream composite samples were around 1.6 pg/g which also indicates a decrease from  concentrations that were higher in the early 1990s but have been stable over the last five years. Now this result similar to the others allegedly can not be "...directly or statistically compared with historical MECP tissue data..." due to differences in sampling, fish species assessed and other reasons which I find very convenient and dubious. 

Somewhat strangely the dioxin and furan tissue concentrations in Shiners are higher in 2025 than they were in 2020. One excuse given is that the fish (shiners) averaged a little larger in the 2025 sampling than the earlier one.

All in all this study proves that doing nothing is cheaper than actually cleaning up and that eventually when you stop polluting, concentrations of toxic Persistent Organic Pollutants (Dioxins/DDT/PCBs etc.) tend to decrease over decades.

HOW WILL WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP RECONCILE DOWNSTREAM TOXIC HEALTH EFFECTS WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLACENCY ?

 

By environmental complacency I mean Woolwich Councils' arms length, treat the polluter with kid gloves behaviour and attitudes.  I mean appointing various "citizens" committees whose primary characteristics are deference and submission to credentialed suits. Even that twit Todd Cowan after appointing a more vigorous and aggressive group of knowledgeable citizens to CPAC in early 2011 bent over backwards to Uniroyal/Chemtura pressure to have me removed. That wasn't enough for the Chemtura scum who couldn't stand to have me present as a sub-committee (SWAT)  assisting CPAC along with Dr. Henry Regier and Rich Clausi. They yelled and screamed in late 2014 and the incoming queen (mayor) got rid of in later 2015 the entire CPAC of highly experienced, knowledgeable and even professionals in the field such as Henry, Ron and Graham. All this was to appease Chemtura who didn't like to have to justify or do more than simply pronounce from on high their inadequate cleanup plans.

The various polluters inadequate cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers is now on record. They have utterly failed after twenty-five years of loud and vigorous claims that all was well and they had the cleanup under control. They lied and they were supported all the way by the Ministry of Environment and by Woolwich Township. I and other citizens have talked to each and every  council since then and despite apparently listening they have done little or nothing. They continue to take all words from the MECP and now Lanxess Canada as gospel from proven deceivers. The only way Woolwich Township survive the last thirty-six years of selling out to a world class polluter is with the eyes closed, ears covered behaviour of local citizens. That is also truly disgraceful.

2025 RECEIVER BIOMONITORING REPORT LANXESS CANADA, ELMIRA, ONTARIO

 

This is a 313 page report which I have not read in its' entirety as yet. There are examinations of fish species, fish abundance, fish tissues as well as of other smaller lifeforms (benthic invertebrates) etc. in the Canagagigue Creek. The area examined is from immediately upstream of the Lanxess property to just downstream past their property. 

Regarding an examination of both numbers and types of fish found (via electrofishing) there certainly are larger numbers than there were back in 1998 as well as some improvement particularly in smallmouth bass numbers later in the season (i.e. August). That said the Creek certainly has not been remotely restored to its' glory days when it was a trout stream. Besides contaminants quite simply the Canagagigue no longer is a cold water stream/creek capable of sustaining cold water species such as trout. The Creek continues to this day to be dominated by coarse fish, highly tolerant of pollution, such as shiners, chubs, suckers and carp. Now and again a northern pike will wander by but they are very rare. 

Observations I made show as expected dioxins, furans , DDT and metabolytes in fish tissues. Some sample have only a few congeners others have many.  Regarding DDT breakdown products DDE is much more prevalent than DDD in fish tissues. What did concern me as well was the amount of samples with PCBs in them. Far too many clearly have been uptaking PCBs despite after 36 years of study neither the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP) nor the known polluter (Uniroyal/Lanxess) have ever shared the source with us. To me that is similar to just recently finding out that indeed as I've long said there is a second source of chlorobenzene to the Elmira drinking water aquifers, still unnamed. 

While mercury is a known contaminant in the Creek including in fish tissues I haven't found any sampling for mercury in fish tissues to date. That too may be convenient as Uniroyal Chemical also never took credit for mercury in the Creek as well as PCBs. The wildlife and the environment and human beings are suffering from these two contaminants as well but Lanxess and the MECP have shown little to no concern for them. If I had to guess I might suggest that the Woolwich Dam bears some responsibility for the mercury as natural mercury that is submerged can become the more toxic kind. Or not.

Yes there has been improvement from the sewer that Uniroyal Chemical turned the Canagagigue Creek into. There is however still a long ways to go with little apparent enthusiasm to do it.

WORKING FOR ORGANIZED CRIME

 

There's an old joke about a young boy telling his father that when he grows up he wants to work in organized crime. His father pauses then asks: "Government or private?" In my opinion it's not that the system per se is totally past redemption it's that just like private industry it's not necessarily the cream that rises to the top. Too often its' the yes men, the loyalists, the cronys and the good old boys who rise . Those already at the top will talk about the intangibles, the willingness to follow all orders no matter how bizarre, the blind loyalty to either the company or the face of the company. 

There is also an old joke about the head of the company talking to an upcoming executive regarding promotion possibilities.  "We need a man of vision, a man of action, a man capable of surreptitiously disposing of 2,000 barrels of alleged toxic waste."  

In other words loyalty first, second and third with knowledge and experience coming in a strong fourth and fifth. That is the route to the top in both private industry and in government. 

Our local legal system has impressed me twice within the last few days. Could it be an advanced right wing conspiracy solely for he purpose of undermining my opinions and positions? Not likely in this dimension or on this particular planet. I have recently spoken here about the corruption within our local Justice System with a focus on that idiot Justice Craig Parry versus any idiot who is a doctor and their name ryhmes with Cola . Notice just like the K-W Record who now have unnamed reporters (i.e. "Record Staff") writing about this case since the obviously guilty or innocent accused (you choose) was recently acquitted of all criminal charges thus opening the door to civil lawsuits for Libel against any folks who might have prejudged his guilt and  directly or indirectly said so. Well I too am covering my (m)ass by now referring to him as Cola not @*ola. 

Back to my point. I puke at that "decision" by Justice Parry and I applaud the homeless people at the tent encampment at Weber and Victoria St. and Judge Gibson who has given them literally a small, tiny place to hang their hats. Obviously a community of this size can and should do better for our homeless who through layoffs, firings, mental health issues, drug addictions, ridiculous housing costs and so much more are trying to live without even the bare minimum of a roof overhead to keep off the rain and snow.  It behooves me to again say that corruption may be the norm but there are still many within the system who try and who care. 

P.S. The other recent positive impression I've received from the Justice System is their darn quick announcement that they are appealing the Dr. Sloka case to the Ontario Court of Appeal.