HUNDER PIT APPLICATION DISMISSED BY OMB

Last Saturday's Woolwich Observer carrys this story "OMB rules against Hunsberger pit". Hunder Developments have 30 days from the April 14/14 Decision to launch an appeal if they so decide. I wish to raise a couple of points. Firstly why did it take the Chair six months to write a nineteen page Decision? The answer to that is obvious. It didn't take six months to write nineteen pages. In my opinion it took six months to talk, negotiate and convince somebody or somebodies that turning down this Application was in their best interests. Secondly the potential ramifications of the Chair's (Mrs. Schiller) comments about the inadequacy of "voluntary compliance" embedded in the Aggregate Resources Act are immense. At least one other provincial Ministry, namely the Ministry of the Environment rely upon voluntary compliance. Don't get me wrong here. Voluntary compliance is a joke, a sham and giving it to either convicted or unconvicted polluters is, as far as I am concerned, an act of governmental corruption. Therefore while Mrs. Schiller is 100% correct in her conclusions I simply don't believe that she was ever appointed or paid to so be. The testimony at the hearing was that on average each gravel pit in Ontario receives an inspection from a Ministry of Natural Resources officer, once every five years. Hence the so called voluntary compliance. Citizens basically are treated as witless money pits, keeping governments and their friends in comfort.