IN WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP THE TAIL WAGS THE DOG

Amongst all the horse manure, puffery and obfuscations Mayor and Council spewed out Tuesday nite there were a couple of grains of truth and insight. Of course the four CPAC members and myself also gave good, honest advice which was ignored by a Council some of whom view themselves as the cavalry riding to Chemtura Canada's rescue. The one Councillor who seemed disturbed by at least some of RAC and TAG replacing CPAC and SWAT was Councillor Merlihan. He made two very noteworthy observations and comments in regards to RAC (Remediation Advisory Committee). First of all he referred to it's structure as "cringeworthy". That was an accurate and beautiful comment regarding it's non-makeup by local citizens. Secondly he referred to it unflatteringly as having been "professionalized". This refers to the GRCA and Region of Waterloo bureaucrats plus the Mayor, Councillor and paid Chair of the TAG (Technical Advisory Committee). This RAC group are reported to by TAG and then RAC reports to Woolwich Council. So in a nutshell the citizens who will be appointed by Council will sit on the "technical" group TAG which reports to RAC which reports to Council. No dirty, unwashed masses directly reporting to Council. Mind you with this particular Council it's all moot anyways however they will be able to totally control any outbursts of honesty by local citizens who depending on their loyalty to Council, might actually be outraged by Chemtura's and the M.O.E.'s ongoing obstruction and obfuscation.

This is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog. Non local citizens (Region & GRCA) plus two politicians all who know little or nothing about Chemtura's contamination will be in charge of the whole situation. They will filter whatever damaging information that they are unlikely to receive anyways from their personally handpicked citizens on TAG. Most of them will be toadies and or co-opted folks who have long received personal benefits from their association with CPAC and Chemtura. Yes Sandy this means Pat and Susan your friends and helpers for your election campaign (Pat anyways). Whether a token honest citizen or two will be thrown to the wolves remains to be seen but rest assurred it won't be me as I'm one of the key persons they are trying to isolate from this whole process.