FINALLY THERE ARE CRACKS IN MUNICIPAL-PROVINCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL LOCKSTEP

Well it's about time. My theory has been that politicians at varying levels ie. municipal, regional, provincial and even federal try to avoid publicly stepping on each other's fragile egos. This means that they tend to support each others decisions and public announcements even when informed viewers can see contradictions in policy positions. I believe that this mutual aid society if you will is all about image. Politicians realize that there is a spillover effect when any of their kind are publicly besmirched. Afterall it would never do for the general public to slowly begin to understand that greater than 90% of all politicians at all levels are there for their and their supporters' benefit versus the benefit of the general public. Hence most of the infighting and turf wars are conducted privately.

So sort of in today's Waterloo Region Record we have a surprisingly blunt Regional government versus Provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs confrontation. It seems that our Waterloo Regional government is not totally on board with the Greater Golden Horseshoe proposed greenbelt expansion. While at first blush this would seem like a good idea for municipalities in general, the region of Waterloo are saying hold on a minute. It seems that most of the other political areas might be getting improvements in regards to environmental protection but the Region of Waterloo could actually see diminished protection. As it stands now our Regional groundwater protection policies including gravel pit restrictions are actually well ahead of provincial policy whether from Municipal Affairs or from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

There is absolutely no doubt that provincial policy favours aggregate removal throughout Ontario regardless of environmental degradation. Whenever municipalities don't toe the line then historically the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has stepped in and slapped down dissenting local politicians. Of late there have been cracks in the OMB's armour including a few years back with the proposed Hunder gravel pit between Winterbourne and Conestoga. They actually decided against that proposed pit in conjunction with both citizens' groups and Woolwich Township.

This article is in the on-line Waterloo Region Record although I didn't see it in this morning's edition of the newspaper. It is titled "Provincial proposal to protect our water falls short: report".