CITY & REGION OF WATERLOO - PASS THE HYPOCRISY PLEASE

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Cities need to know railway cargo". A second councillor, this one for Kitchener, is getting on the railway cargo safety blitz. This of course is decades after the horse has bolted through the open gate. A Waterloo councillor was making noises a few months back about the Waterloo spur line that runs through residential areas in her constituency. There was a derailment last year in which chemicals heading to Chemtura in Elmira were involved. The inference at the time was that the chemicals were essentially inoccuous and non-threatening. That may or may not be true. If it is true then Chemtura and our local politicians all dodged a bullet big time because Chemtura (Uniroyal) have been hauling in toxic and dangerous chemicals by both rail and truck for decades. By the way they aren't the only company in Elmira so doing.

Here's where the hypocrisy comes in. Both the Region and the Cities of Waterloo and Kitchener are more interested in protecting their turf and their credibility than anything else. The only thing worse for a local politician than knowing about a potential hazard and doing nothing is not knowing about it in the first place. Procrastination and delay are bad but total ignorance is the kiss of death for local politiicans. Finger on the heartbeat of the community sort of thing. So now both the City of Waterloo and the Region are in the know as the railroad car manifests are shared with them. Guess what? Neither want to share with their citizens including those living along the railroad line. Guess why? There are tons of dangerous goods going through residential communities and none of our local politicians ever had any intentions to make things safer for residents. Hell no! Safety in their wee pro business minds means additional costs. Imagine the costs needed to make rail traffic safer in Lac Megantic, Quebec; prior to the 47 deaths.

Politics is a game and the people in charge are not there for the benefit of their constituents. They are there for their benefit and the benefit of like minded thinking people. Mostly that means the wealthy and powerful. It is not in their best interests to overeact with costly measures each and every decade when there is a disaster. It is much more cost effective for the wealthy elite to buy local (& provincial & federal) politicians and use them as buffers to absorb occasional outrage from the public. This is what democracy has descended to.