URBAN DEVELOPMENT "EXPERTS" PRAISE KITCHENER TANNERY REDEVELOPMENT

The article in last Saturday's K-W Record is titled " Tannery District wins "Brownie" ". " The Region of Waterloo and the City of Kitchener provided the developer; Toronto based Cadan Inc., with $891,000 to help pay for the environmental cleanup at the site.". Isn't that sweet? What it should say is that you, I and the Regional taxpayers once again bailed out wealthy corporate polluters. This article states that this tannery was once "...the biggest tannery in the old British Empire". That being the case why didn't the owners of this corporation clean up their own mess at their own expense? Tanneries by the way have horrific waste streams including acids, dyes and various solvents. We the citizens will be paying for their ability to externalize their waste/discharge costs for decades. I would very much like to get my hands on the environmental reports, monitoring reports, soil analyses etc. as well as the remediation plan for this site. The chances of an honest to God, serious and well done cleanup at this site are about equal to the chances of proper cleanups at most sites that are off the public radar, ie. slim to nil.