USURPING and ABUSING AUTHORITY

The behaviour by the Ministry of the Environment, Chemtura and former CPAC members has been strange to say the least. There had been hints, whispers and vague references to a Site-Wide Air Certificate of Approval during the last couple of years of the old CPAC. I attended the CPAC meetings even after the old Council had voted 3 to 1 to remove me as a voting member. Councillor Bauman was out of the country at the time. I warned the old CPAC that they were becoming a rubber stamp for the wishes of Chemtura and I also warned them that under their watch to many issues were not being handled in a public and transparent way. This specifically included their handling of this Air C. of A. which on the surface appeared to be nothing but of benefit to Chemtura and the M.O.E.. I could see absolutely no public benefit and at the same time as a member of the public regularily attending meetings was being kept totally in the dark.

Lo and behold Woolwich citizens voted in a new Council with the exception of Councillor Bauman. As per the CPAC Terms of Reference, their term ended with the old Council back in late October 2010. To my shock their Chair Pat Mclean had the brass and nerve to call and hold another public CPAC meeting after the municipal election and before the new CPAC volunteer members had either been appointed or reappointed . I stood up at that meeting and bluntly and publicly told the lot of them that they were a lame duck committee and nothing they did at this meeting was valid or legitimate. This and other statements on my part after I was no longer a voting CPAC member did not endear me to Pat and Susan. One other thing I advised them at that meeting was that there was a new CPAC membership coming and most of them wouldn't be on it. I had hopes for Gerry Heidburt, Ken Driedger and even Sandra Bair. Hindsight being 20-20 Gerry and Ken would have been a positive addition.

At the last CPAC meeting, two weeks ago today I spoke to the urgency expressed by the M.O.E., Chemtura and two old CPAC members namely Pat McLean and Susan Bryant. They all seemed to insist that the young CPAC were obligated to comment on a peer review of this Cert. of Approval, done by a very reputable company namely RWDI out of Guelph. I stated that both the old and the young CPAC had been given the mushroom treatment on this issue including private meetings and certainly the young CPAC were NOT obligated to comment on a matter that they had been kept in the dark about. Well Pat Mclean huffed and puffed and flatly denied any such private meetings/dealings had gone on. A week and a half later and the young CPAC have found out that indeed there was a private meeting last fall on this matter which included APT Environment, Chemtura, RWDI and some old CPAC members. The young CPAC who had been operating and holding public meetings since June 2011 were NOT invited!

Can it get any worse? Well as a matter of fact it can. Documents have been released this week by the CPAC Secretary, Corrine Shuh, which appear to indicate that not only was Pat McLean calling and holding public CPAC meetings when she was no longer Chair and when CPAC's term had ended; but that ex Chair Mclean was promoting the expenditure of public funds for a Peer Review improperly and without any authority whatsoever. Is this why both Pat and her buddy Susan have started attending public CPAC meetings and are so insistent that the young CPAC MUST comment? Is this one more case of making a virtue out of a sin? Is this a case of legitimizing after the fact, the illegitmate behaviour of the former CPAC Chair?