MOE/MECP REFUSES TO RESPOND TO GRCA - FOR TEN YEARS!

Sorry if I am somewhat unsurprised or unmoved by the revelation in yesterday's Waterloo Region Record's story titled "Still no answer after 10 years". In fact I find it somewhat reassuring. Afterall here in Elmira, citizens routinely wait ten years for promised answers from the Ontario Ministry of Environment and sometimes even longer. Heck I might even suggest that waiting ten years for an honest answer is better than getting the usual from the MOE which is a false answer, repeated regularily until they finally decide to come clean, long after everybody else knows the truth. This has certainly been the case regarding the MOE mandated 2028 deadline for cleaning up the Elmira aquifers. The MOE (George Karlos) and others were still promising the full cleanup by 2028 as late as 2014, two years after CPAC and Woolwich Council said horse manure, it wasn't going to happen! The MOE also promised back in 2012 that they would have a list of criteria within six months that would provide clarity as to what actually defined "cleanup" of the Elmira Aquifers. We are still waiting. Then of course there was the prizewinner. The Ontario MOE promised UPAC and Elmira citizens that they would advise whether or not the DNAPL "cleanup" on the Uniroyal site in 1993 was satisfactory or not. We are still waiting for that decision/determination. Unbelievable filth and scum that treat citizens so disrespectfully. How can any honest citizen so much as look at the MOE and not spit on them? Oh yeah, that's because the vast majority of Canadian citizens, unlike their governing bodies and authorities, have morals and ethics. ....................................................................................................... The article in yesterday's Record by reporter Leah Gerber describes the MOE/MECP's refusal to respond to legitimate questions regarding drinking water protection in the province. Source protection committees are organized across the province and led by our Conservation Authorities. For example the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) coordinates four different watershed groups namely the Grand River watershed, the Catfish Creek watershed, the Kettle Creek watershed and finally the Long Point Region watershed. These source water protection committees are mandated by the Ontario Clean Water Act of 2006 which came about after the Walkerton disaster in 2000. ......................................................................................................... All the local source protection committees want to know is whether or not they can designate below water table former aggregate quarries as a threat to drinking water. While politically that's a hot potatoe for the province of Ontario (& the MOE) because aggregate producers like to donate to both Liberal and Conservative Party coffers. Shame on our governments for then bending over backwards to accomodate them. This is the kind of work these committees having been doing for years namely identifying drinking water threats and making plans to mitigate them. ....................................................................................................................... Of course here's the bottom line. It's all window dressing. Always has been. Drinking water threats from sources without political or financial resources will be identified and mitigated. Others with power, money and influence will be avoided, forgotten or simply delayed. Like delayed for ten years while the source protection committees blow in the wind. As our provincial politicians fully intended from day one. "Only" seven people died from E. Coli in Walkerton in 2000. "Only" thousands got sick. That is a small price to pay for the maintenance of the wealth and privelege of the few. As it has always been.