LAST EVENING'S PUBLIC TAG MEETING

It was difficult to watch. It could even have been called a little bit painful. There was no one present sitting at the Council Table last evening to blame for the situation. Any blame assigned would fall on the shoulders of the four TAG members not present plus Sandy Shantz sitting in the last row of the gallery. She and Councillor Mark Bauman presented a "manufactured" crisis two years ago as the basis for removing dedicated, experienced, competent and professional Woolwich citizens from the Council appointed Chemtura Public Advisory Committee. The "crisis" was Chemtura and the M.O.E. failing to attend public CPAC meetings after the new Council was elected and the irony now is incredible. CPAC continues on as the Citizens Public Advisory Committee. It is not a committee of Woolwich Council. Chemtura and the M.O.E. still aren't attending CPAC's replacement, the Technical Advisory Group (TAG). They attend a total of four RAC (Remediation Advisory Committee) meetings a year namely September, December, March and June.

TAG did not have a quorum last night. Three formally appointed TAG members showed up namely Joe Kelly, Linda Dickson and Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach. Of the four who did not attend it is the second meeting in a row that both Pat Mclean and Susan Bryant were not present. Such blatant hypocrites. Is it that their wee noses are out of joint? They were replaced, as per Dr. Jackson's promise, by Sebastian and David Hofbauer as the two TAG representatives to RAC for the next year. Or is it just too delicious for them to have once again back doored Woolwich volunteers with the new Council in 2014 in order to get themselves reappointed to the Council appointed public consultation body dealing with Chemtura's contamination? They accomplished their goal but now attending TAG meetings is awfully time consuming and onerous don't you know. Disgusting and disgraceful behaviour.

Chemtura and the M.O.E. attended a few TAG meetings in late 2015 and in 2016. Dr. Jackson the TAG Chair (then), absolutely eviscerated Terri Buhlman (M.O.E.) for her deception, double talk and overall bullshit. Now Chemtura and the M.O.E. are again not attending Woolwich Council appointed citizens (TAG) dealing with the Uniroyal/Chemtura contamination.

Sandy Shantz should be down on her knees begging forgiveness of CPAC for removing and defaming them. Is she so thick that she still hasn't figured out how badly she got played by Susan and Pat? And by Chemtura and the Ministry of Environment? Or in the alternative does she know full well exactly what she's done and is pleased to have let Chemtura off the hook?

None of this is to blame the new TAG members. Or the newest Chair, Tiffany Svensson. They are in an impossible situation. While Pat and Susan have, mostly but not completely behind the scenes, vociferously attacked and vilified the CPAC members who replaced them in early 2011; CPAC have showed much more class. We have embraced the new TAG members as citizen volunteers educating themselves and doing their civic duty on these serious local matters.

Tiffany Svensson has extraordinarily big shoes to fill in replacing Dr. Richard Jackson as TAG Chair. He is a giant in his field with a working lifetime of first hand environmental experience dealing with many grossly contaminated sites. He also has a strong personality and cuts right through the heavy duty bullshit that magnifies and flourishes here in Woolwich Township. Do I believe after such a short introduction and time that Tiffany Svensson is up to the job? I do although the next few TAG and RAC meetings are crucial. She will attend the March 14th RAC meeting along with the two new TAG reps. Dr. Dan Holt should almost be proud of the fact that it has taken two highly, technically qualified persons to assume the Chairperson's position after himself. Dr. Dan did a great job and continues as Chair of the Citizens Public Advisory Committee (CPAC).

Last evening TAG consisted of a brand new Chair plus two of three members with but sixteen months experience on the Chemtura file. As much as I don't want to flatter Susan Bryant, the reality is that if present she could have gotten the meeting on to the really current and urgent business. Even Pat Mclean while technically incompetent could have pushed discussion onto contamination in the fish in the creek or onto the blatantly biased sampling locations proposed for the Stroh farm. If either Chemtura or the M.O.E. had been present, TAG members and Chair could have asked them pointed questions regarding those matters.

These folks were not present. Viv, Graham, myself and Sebastian from CPAC were all present last evening. CPAC members faithfully attended CPAC meetings from early 2011 until August 2015. I hope Mark and Sandy that you are well satisfied with your efforts.