NORTHSTAR AEROSPACE SETTLEMENT A PRECEDENT

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Settlement reached on Northstar Aerospace environmental cleanup". There was a meeting yesterday morning in Cambridge Council Chambers to continue the appeal of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment's Control Order demanding the Directors' assume financial liability. Thay all had appealed mostly on the basis that they weren't in direct charge of the affairs of the company. This had seemed a little strange to me as several of them held senior management positions, were Directors on the Board and held stock in the company. Hence the M.O.E. went after them for money required to continue the remediation both on site, off-site and to maintain the vapour extraction systems in some homes. According to the Record the Settlement is for $4.75 million and the Directors will jointly pay that to continue the ongoing remediation. In a statement the Ministry claimed "This is the first time the ministry has held corporate directors of a publicly-traded company personally responsible for an environmental claeanuo after a company has gone bankrupt". If that is indeed so then the M.O.E. have been letting Directors go for a very long time. Over twenty years ago they took a half hearted run at the Directors of Varnicolor Chemical in Elmira but eventually let them off the hook.