FIRST AGENDA FOR THE NEW CPAC

I don't believe that planning for the new Agenda is remotely premature. Certainly Councillor Herteis, the new CPAC Chair will want to schedule the first CPAC meeting as soon as possible after April 12/11. Either this or the naming of the new members on April 12 will trigger release of the Minutes of the last CPAC meeting, namely November 29, 2010. There will be a few items under Business Arising from the Minutes such as odour complaints etc. that were brought up at the last meeting. Hopefully there will be very little under New Business from Chemtura and then the Ministry of the Environment. The reason for this is that they will want to quickly gauge what they are up against with this new CPAC. My expectation is that New Business from CPAC will be the big item. Of course the new Terms of Reference will be handed out. Then if CPAC are smart they will open several cans of worms early in their mandate. This will include discussion of the M.O.E.'s habit of amending Control Orders first, then bringing suggestions for change to CPAC for discussion. It will include discussions around the M.O.E. refusing to enforce 20 year old Control Orders upon Uniroyal/Chemtura. It will include discussion around Chemtura's never ending excuses about not removing sub surface Dioxins on the southeast corner of their property. It will include discussion as to why a July 2003 "Request for Action" document produced and passed unanimously by CPAC has not been implemented. It will include discussion as to why the old CPAC kept handing concessions to Chemtura in the form of reduced ground and surface water monitoing. It will include repudiation of reduced data publishing in Annual Monitoring Reports and monthly Progress Reports.

Personally one item I hope to see is a blunt Declaration by CPAC. It would indicate that all private deals, arrangements and agreements between individual members or sub-committees of CPAC and the M.O.E. and or Chemtura are improper. They MUST be debated in full; including public input at public CPAC meetings. No longer will one or two members negotiate privately with the M.O.E. and or Chemtura and then bring the finished result (or not) to CPAC for ratification. There have been neverending private "technical" meetings between two or three past CPAC members and Chemtura in regards to DNAPLS and in regards to a long term cleanup plan for the site. Both these meetings themselves as well as the results of them must be ended immediately. The results must be cancelled not only because of their improper and probably illegal nature under the Municipal Act but also because there was a very good reason that they were done in private. They are NOT in the public interest. The results are bogus and they are not supportable in open, honest public debate.

There is more. Chemtura will not be pleased but this Committee no longer exists to please them. It exists to further the public interest around a public health issue. From now on it will be conducted openly and with transparency. If Chemtura does not agree to this and wish one more time to pick up their marbles and go home, then so be it. The days of giving them concessions just to get them to the table are over!