Canadian taxpayers may lose $1.25 million granted by feds' notorious Canada Jobs Fund, in toxic waste disposal deal gone bad

A Straight Goods exclusive by Charlie Angus

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Minor Amendment
  After only a year in operation, TCI was singing the Kirkland Lake blues. Business wasn't good and layoffs were looming. Then the news surfaced that TCI had secured contracts from Japan. What would keep the Kirkland plant viable was a "minor amendment" from the Ministry of Environment. You know, scratch out the part that says "licensed for Canada" and scribble in the words "receive PCB waste from other OECD and Basel Convention countries".
  TCI's lawyer, Michael Zarin, says the amendment is no big deal. "It's not as if there's going to be any new environmental impact from amending our application. The environment isn't going to know whether you are treating PCBs from Ontario or Mexico."
  Brennain Lloyd of the environmental group Northwatch thinks otherwise. "It's a very loaded thing to say we are going to start taking PCBs from around the world." Pointing out that this "minor amendment" would open the Canadian border to the importation of PCB-contaminated metals, Northwatch joined with a number of province-wide environmental organizations in fighting the proposal. TCI's request came as the MOEE was coming under serious heat for its apparent "open door" policy on waste importing. The Canadian Institute of Environmental Law and Policy had just released a damning report showing that, since 1993, the importation of toxic waste had quadrupled from 85,000 tonnes to 230,000 tonnes.
  Said Mark Winfield, a researcher with the Canadian Environmental Law Assocation (CELA): "The signal from the province is that anything will be approved. Ontario has become a very attractive place to dispose of waste cheaply. We are definitely becoming a continental dumping ground." On Christmas Eve, Winfield and other advocates were surprised by the news that the MOEE had decided to turn down TCI's plan. The ruling noted that the importation plan "may result in a hazard to the health or safety of the public" and was therefore "not in the public interest".
  Brennain Lloyd believes that one of the reason's for the rejection may have been the fact that TCI's attitude might have "ticked off" people within the Ministry. "If they intended on taking this waste from Japan and Mexico they should have said so from the beginning. TCI has been very high-handed. They presume to lecture us as how, as global citizens, we should be welcoming PCBs into Northern Ontario."
  Zarin, however, believes that TCI is being made a fall guy for the MOEE's bad press. "I think the Ministry took a hit publicly and became gun shy....this decision is totally at odds with what I understand to be this government's pro-business mentality."
  Certainly, public pressure from groups like Northwatch, CELA, and the Citizen's Network on Waste Management, pushed the MOEE to finally take a stand. But TCI isn't taking the rejection lightly. Perhaps mistaking the pine trees of the province for banana plantations, they are claiming that the decision "exceeds the authority of the Ministry of the Environment of Ontario".
  Temiskaming MPP David Ramsay (Liberal) has said he will approach the provincial cabinet for a change in MOEE policy, if the appeal goes against TCI.
  Speaking from his office in Westchester, New York, Zarin calls the rejection a "slap in the face" to the residents of Northern Ontario. "We came into Kirkland Lake hoping to put Kirkland Lake on the international map...and the government's decision based on a two sentence (decision) -- not in the public interest -- will put this plant in risk of closing."
  Brennain Lloyd, however, believes that the real slap in the face may be the fact that Canadian taxpayers gave away $1.25 million with the understanding that the plant was going to address regional needs. If the plant closes, TCI would have no obligation to pay the money back. "This really raises the question about accountability in spending public money," she says.
  No date for a decision on the appeal has been announced.

Charlie Angus is the editor of HighGrader Magazine in Cobalt, Ontario. His latest book is the photo-collaboration, Industrial Cathedrals of the North. He is the lead singer with the Canadian folk band Grievous Angels.

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