BIO-EN PUBLIC CONSULTATION IS A FARCE

I'm going out on a limb here and saying that Bio-En is coming to town and will be located on Martin's Lane in Elmira. Not only do I believe that the final location is decided but I believe it's been that way for a while. The local group BFCC (Bio Fuel Concerned Citizens) and their appropriately named STOP THE STINK campaign have effectively been ignored. Their input, petitions, letters, e-mails, lawn signs and thoughtful and accurate research appear to mean nothing to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

The BFCC have kept the doors open to communication with the M.O.E. From Ed Speers in the beginning to Dan Holt and all the other volunteers and activists involved, they have been open, honest, polite and respectful. Mayor Cowan campaigned on a promise that his connections to the McGuinty Liberal government would assist him in persuading both the Bio-En proponents and the M.O.E. to look at and accept an alternate location, hopefully in Woolwich but not next to a residential subdivision. It appears to be all in vain.

A week ago disturbing information was received by the BFCC. They appropriately e-mailed their M.O.E. contact person with a very simple and direct question. Is the Martin Lane location in Elmira a done deal? Within a couple of hours they had a response. It was bureaucratic doubletalk about technical design work. They immediately, last Friday, e-mailed him back and politely pointed out that he had deflected their question. No new answer for a few days so another e-mail was sent to the same M.O.E. person. This one he responded to stating he hadn't received the second e-mail last Friday. Patiently the same question went back to him . Again a simple yes or no answer was avoided by the M.O.E. person. In the middle of his response dealing with the facility design not yet meeting regulatory requirements, he did however have the following sentence. "PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS THE PROPONENT'S DECISION TO SELECT THE PROJECT LOCATION" (I have printed the quote in capitol letters).

My opinion, and I emphasize it is exactly that, is that the M.O.E. have pulled a bait and switch whereby the citizens concerns around location, for a myriad of legitimate reasons including traffic and odours, have been arbitrarily shifted to design concerns by the M.O.E. which said design change may or may not have some minor mitigating effect on odours only. If I was a betting man I'd say that Elmira citizens have gotten it again in the ear from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.