INDUSTRY & GOVERNMENT PARTNERS IN POLLUTION

There will be at least two opportunities this week for the public to come out and listen to the sad story of local polluter/government partnerships. Tonite at Woolwich Council (7 pm.) I will be a Delegate and will be discussing the October 1991 Settlement Agreement between the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.) and Uniroyal/Chemtura. Then Thursday evening (6 pm.) will finally be the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) which has been delayed since last fall. The Agenda is already full and there are still many items that should have been clarified and discussed months ago. Quite frankly what I would like to see is the backlog caught up by more frequent meetings over the next few months. What has been apparent to me for some time is that polluters can not sucessfully bafflegab and deflect the public's outrage without professional help. That professional help are politicians. They are there to serve the interests of industry including the polluters. The M.O.E. have long been a buffer, an insulator and a protecter of polluting industry. They literally collect data, write reports and act as public relations tools for polluting industry.