BREAKING NEWS!

VOL.8, ISSUE 3: Summer 2013

A rare chance to speak your mind Research and Perspectives from the Southgate Public Interest Research Group See p.2

Common Ground

IN THIS I SS U E: The Canary in the Coal Mine: What happens now the kids are getting sick? FEATURE STORY 1
Not a single public meeting to consider the idea. Not a whisper of these plans at election time. Not a single sheaf of paper with the briefest penciled projection of benefits to the community. Nothing. No wonder the citizens of the village of Dundalk were stunned to learn 18 months ago that they were to be the host of a waste park: the destination of thousands of tons of waste from distant communities. The location? Just through the gate from the villages daycare and primary school. (stock photo)

Zombie Zoning: Back to court we go SPECIAL REPORT 1

Strategy before planning, please EDITORIAL 2

The canary in the coal mine:

What happens now that the kids are getting sick?
and returned to school the following day. On the day he was ill the wind had shifted and there was a cloying sickly sweet pine smell from the Eco Park, I have smelt this in town on many days and have spoken to many residents who have also smelt it some with unexplained headaches and feeling unwell associated. Its almost like an industrial air freshener trying to cover something up. On the 27th my son complained that his neck felt stiff when he got out of bed, I just thought he had slept in a bad position and he went to school. After school on the Friday his teacher informed me that he had seemed lethargic and not himself during the school day, he seemed fine at home. Saturday morning he had a huge lump in his neck and we took him to Markdale Hospital. We were told that he had an enlarged lymph gland and to give him Advil and monitor. On Sunday at around lunchtime he stopped playing and took himself to bed. Now we knew something was wrong. On Monday my wife took him to our family doctor in Orangeville, while they were in the doctors office his condition deteriorated so fast that she sent them to the emergency department at the hospital. He was admitted and put on antibiotics, my wife and I split staying at hospital with him as we both work and have an 8 year old to look after. After 5 days he had no real improvement and the doctor told us that although both he and a specialist at sick kids suspected Kawasaki disease (attacks the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle) they had to rule out many

Secrecy vs. Leadership: the break down of trust REFLECTIONS 2

COMMON GROUND is published by the Southgate Public Interest Research Group Membership Inquiries: call Doyle at 923-9550

Since the community of Dundalk first became aware of the plan to turn the village into a multi-tenant waste disposal site, there have been deep concerns about the location of waste projects right next to the primary school and daycare. Weve been aware of several stories of children feeling sick at school and many residents of the village have reported sickening odours on occasion. In council chambers, early on, one mother pleaded for council to consider the children. So what happens now that the kids are getting sick? COMMON GROUND was circulated a letter from a parent with a child who became profoundly ill. We thank the Bellamy family for sharing their story, and reproduce that letter in its entirety here. CG We moved to Dundalk in January of 2012, we love this community and the Dundalk and Proton School is second to none. I am not a letter writer, activist, tree hugger, protester etc, just a proud Dad. I would like to share my story and my concerns. On February 25 2013 my wife was called to the school as my 4 year old son had become ill during outdoor recess and had thrown up, when my wife got to the school he seemed fine and was eating his lunch. He said that the bad smell, like rotting stuff outside had made him feel sick, he was fine for the rest of the day at home (indoors)

other potential causes first. On Sunday after test results they told us that in the absence of any other sickness he had to have Kawasaki disease and after we had signed all the release forms they started the 5 hour treatment. Thankfully it worked, though my son has to make regular visits to a pediatric cardiologist to make sure there is no permanent damage. We are so thankful to Dr Murphy (at the hospital every day we were there !! ) and to all the nursing staff at the hospital. I had many concerns and have spoken to medical professionals and researched online but no one knows how this potentially life threatening disease is contracted. The one thing that seemed to start it was the bad smell from the Eco Park on that day in February. Could I prove that this was the cause? I am no scientist, but then again I would like to see some research done to prove the opposite. Could my sons case be the proverbial canary in the coal mine? Maybe the Mayor and Council would like to come over and breathe in this bad smell, and we could test them instead of the children in the school. Lets shut all these operations down until we know for sure they are safe or ECO may stand for Ecological Catastrophe Overlooked. Food, Water and Kids first please. David Bellamy Dundalk, Ontario

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Zombie Zoning: Back to court we go

Back to court we go. The September 2012 building permit appeal ruling goes back in front of the court this October. The wastedevelopment lobby says just give up, youre wasting money. Citizens funding the appeal say it was wasteful to destroy the protections we should expect through our zoning. As we go to press, three processes are on a collision course. Firstly, the sewage-sludge processing plant is becoming operational. Secondly, Southgate Township is attempting to rezone land to allow waste transfer, disposal and processing in what is now the Dundalk waste park. And thirdly, the appeal of Justice Ricchettis September 2012 decision (to allow the Lystek building permit to stand) is heading back to court in an appeal organized by SPIRG, and funded by the generosity of Southgate citizens. Heres the background: In the CAOs report of December 7th 2011, Southgate council discovered that the land it had sold earlier that year to two commercial waste processing firms was not zoned for waste processing. It was not for lack of trying. In 2009, after advertising a public meeting to discuss what was announced as an innocent zoning bylaw update (we were led to believe they were just correcting spelling and typos), the people running the show actually had two bylaw drafts up their sleeve. One, for the first time in Southgate history, introduced waste disposal and processing as an accepted use in M1 industrial zoning; the other, pointedly, did not. The official story of what really happened that night warrants more scrutiny than it has received. But we do know this: the version of the bylaw that got circulated and signed was the one without waste processing included. When this came to light before the sale of land conditions were waived, before site plans and building permits were issued, before legal appeals, roadblocks, protest marches, and sign campaigns there was a simple piece of procedural advice offered in correspondence from SPIRG to Southgate Council. Our advice? Rezone the property for its intended use before you
Continued, over

We dedicate this issue of

COMMON GROUND to the polite, persistent, passionate citizens on the front lines of the fight for our future . - CG

BREAKING NEWS
A rare chance to speak your mind!
Wednesday August 14 7pm - Council Chambers
As you probably know by now, the waste park in our village is not actually zoned for waste : a fact which has been the foundation of our legal fight for Dundalks future. However, just as COMMON GROUND was going to press, we learned of a new bid to re-zone the lands to specifically allow waste processing: a move which might actually allow Lystek to proceed even if the community won their court case in October. The good news is that re-zoning triggers public consultation. That means you have an important opportunity to go on the record with your thoughts about Councils plans to turn the village of Dundalk into a multi-tenant waste destination. Its possible that Council plans to pass the zoning bylaw whatever objections the community might raise. However, it is important that the public attend the meeting and/or provide written or oral submissions in order to have the right to participate in an appeal of the zoning, should it pass. For more information, go to www.stopthewastepark.com, or call Anna at 519-377-7777 for details on how to participate. One easy way? Just write your thoughts on a piece of paper , sign it, and submit it at the meeting (Keep a copy)

Zombie Zoning. continued

waive conditions and close the sale. To be fair, Council discerned (correctly) that the people offering this advice were no friends of waste processing in Dundalk. In fact SPIRGs subsequent correspondence hinted that Council should anticipate a building permit appeal if they did go ahead and sell the improperly zoned land. But it was still good advice and for several reasons. First, the rezoning process would have provided the public their first formal opportunity to have a say, and exert their political will on an industrial development agenda focused on waste. Second, it would have provided councilors an opportunity to do what they were elected to do: listen, and represent the public. Thirdly, whatever the outcome, rezoning would have aligned what the zoning allows with the use intended for the property. That, as we all know, is not what happened. Instead, a ruse in three parts was conceived and implemented: (a) stretch the definition of dry industry to include anything that doesnt require large quantities of municipal water (b) design the proposed facility with the means to get large quantities of water from the site, rather than from the town, and (c) leverage their own unlimited spending power to retain lawyers who are so smooth they could actually make this seem reasonable to a judge - or better yet, see if they can prevent the community from even presenting its case. The ruse was clever enough if your only goal was to make sure that Torontos sewage sludge could be processed in Dundalk a few blocks away from schools and homes. But it was not free of consequence. One of these has been the expensive legal battle between the Township and the people in the township who oppose both the idea of a waste-focused industrial strategy and the means by which it has been imposed upon people with neither due disclosure nor consent. A second is the climate of uncertainty that now surrounds the purchase or ownership of property throughout the township. The norm of planning and zoning practice is that all uses are excluded that are not explicitly included. The dry industry ruse (and especially its success before Justice Ricchetti in Sept. 2012) has wiped out important protections that should be provided in our zoning. What

message does it give to any property owner, investor or buyer about the kinds of uses that might take place in future? No thoughtful investor would ignore that factor. Some existing property owners may not sleep quite as well, either. It took a lot of effort from our Council and staff with considerable help from the $495/hour Bay Street lawyers hired with your taxes to give us this irrational zombie zoning. The threat posed by such zoning is one of the reasons we are committed to the appeal. Will SPIRG and the community be successful against a council and a proponent with almost limitless funds and most of the power? Will common sense eventually prevail: in the courts if not in the council? We dont know. Weve learned that you cant predict a legal outcome based on the strength of a case. But know this: countless donors have opened their wallets once more to ensure this fight continues. to protect the children of Dundalk and the future of our community . So count on it. Come October, well be there.fighting zombie zoning. CG

NOTE TO COUNCIL: Strategy first then planning

Southgate has embarked upon a planning process hiring a third party (a good idea), gathering data (another good idea), providing opportunities for community input (another good idea), and setting a timetable to build a plan that can create context for the choices future councils will make. Had such a process taken place sooner, prior to the waste park, we would have a healthier economy and a more close-knit community today. This is precisely why SPIRG hosted a World Caf event in the spring of 2011, oblivious to the secret negotiations with the waste industry taking place at virtually the same moment. But as a result of those secret dealings by Southgate, we now have an elephant in the room. So a usually tough job becomes vastly more failure-prone, based on the breakdown of public trust and communication. And this is compounded by the present zoning situation. Thanks to the clever work of lawyers paid with our tax dollars to paper-over a zoning error, our zoning presently protects us from very little at all that we might decide is incompatible with our vision for our communitys future. SPIRG has participated constructively in the effort providing our feedback at numerous stages in the project. Here are some of the constructive critiques we have offered: The survey was narrow in scope: discussing satisfaction with existing services offered by the municipality. This might provide some present gap analysis, but not so much in the way of insight about what new possibilities might exist. The goals shared were organized as only a list, not as a system that could help future decision-makers manage tradeoffs between them. We questioned whether they are all of equal importance, whether they are all compatible, and how they work together. Missing has been a negotiation of the long-range vision: How do we want our community to be special and different from others twenty years from now? Whats our vision of a desired future? When we consulted with an independent expert on municipal planning, we were advised that focusing on this question first is critical to success. We believe what Southgate needs is something more ambitious than a plan; we need a strategy strong enough that never again will our economic development strategy be to settle for undesirable industries because thats the best we can get. Long -range st rat egy requi res des ig n t hi nki ng. Its not abo ut a g rab bag of go als its abo ut a syste m of go als, a bout a pl anne d seq ue nc e of pro gressive diff erentiat io n, i ts abo ut the sacrific e of some possi bil ities i n o rde r to make ot he rs co me a bout. If Southgates new plan does not exhibit this kind of thinking - it is hard to see how it can really change much. Thats not a reason not to try its a reason to not settle for anything short of a good strategy, with a plan that answers to it. CG

See you there!

Giant YARD & MOVING SALE

Starts Friday August 20 at noon #773126 Hwy 10 (at Proton Station) Large selection of household goods, equipment, plus additions. Organic baked goods also available to purchase. Support your community! Information: tntevents2013@gmail.com

REFLECTIONS
Secrecy versus leadership.. and the breakdown of trust
As we go to press for this summer 2013 issue of COMMON GROUND, we look at the present moment in the context of the last five years of municipal government in Southgate. Notwithstanding the 2010 election that divided this period in two electoral terms, there is a fairly consistent cast of players and an even more consistent pattern of behavior: A reliance on secrecy as an instrument of control. It is in this context that the public has viewed Southgates consideration of a new bylaw concerning the retention and destruction of municipal records and documents. The bylaw was recently defeated in Southgate Council chambers, with at least one Councilor advocating changes to improve it, others responding to negative public feedback and opting to retreat from the discussion. In the public eye, there was a question whether the intent of this bylaw was driven by a desire to manage public documents better, or a desire to destroy them. Regardless of the true intent, the question was fair. In this digital age, when it has never been easier or cheaper to accumulate, organize, store, secure and retrieve information, the bylaw set out a policy framework for the permanent destruction of records. Some people found that curious. Others, familiar with the broader pattern of Southgate Townships behavior, found it alarming. Here are components of this pattern: In February 2009, Southgate Council advertised a public meeting to review a general zoning bylaw update. The meeting notice deliberately created the impression of a routine, inconsequential meeting it noted the correction of typos as a purpose. What the notice disd not mention was the concealed intention to introduce waste disposal and processing a previously prohibited use - into accepted use in M1 Industrial zoning throughout the township. Shockingly, if you lived next to an industrial area, you could now find yourself living next to such things as a disposal and processing site for massive volumes of sewage sludge, mold-breeding compost, and soil contaminated with petroleum, and toxic chemicals. Clearly, the inclusion of waste processing as an accepted use in industrial zoning would have been the more relevant piece of information to share with residents in this notice. But even in 2009, Southgates government was aware that they were running with an agenda that, if revealed, was bound to cause a backlash. And rather than publicly revealing and negotiating the policy agenda towards a political consensus, they misdirected public attention to conceal it instead. If that statement sounds strongly worded, consider the evidence that corroborates it. During the closed meeting investigation completed in May 2012, it came to light that the Southgate Economic Development Committee - a group with significant overlaps with the present Council and senior council staff - agreed through discussion to neither publicize the time, date and location of their meetings, nor document and share minutes of their discussions for the public record. This practice was maintained for a period of 25 months, from Dec. 2009 until early 2011. And yes that conveniently kept these discussions out of sight during the run-up to the Oct. 2010 municipal election. The closed meeting investigator also went on to note that even under the pressure of a freedom of information act request, what actually went on in those meetings remains a mystery today. Would the public interpretation of election issues during the Oct. 2010 election have been different had it been known that the Economic Development Committee was pursuing the waste industry? Certainly so. Because Southgate owns land in what is now the Dundalk waste park, negotiations with waste industry proponents can be legally concealed from the public based on the execeptions to municipal act rules dealing with the disposition and sale of land. Even so, Southgate Council was found in the same investigation to be acting in violation of Municipal act rules during a Feb. 2011 meeting, that was pawned off on the public as being for education of Councilors, but was later proven to be part of a negotiation with the waste industry. Later in August 2011 when that deal was revealed, Mayor Milne revealed the proponent had asked Southgate to keep it quiet as long as possible. These are some flagrant infractions of the principle of transparency - a principle that is the soul of effective municipal democracy, but there are more subtle ones too. If you attend a Southgate Council meeting, you will notice that controversial topics are subjected to a usually unstated code of silence among members of council. Few questions are asked, discussion is constrained. However, while the code may be unstated, it does not appear to be uninforced. In one notable case observed in fall 2011, a rookie Councilor with the temerity to break with this code was overtly threatened by the deputy Mayor with the comment youre walking a fine line. Evidently, under the Southgate code of conduct, when a policy agenda collides with the publics right to an evidence-based public policy discussion the secret agenda rules. And what about the public record of such events? There is little in the way of critical investigative journalism covering Southgate Council. And the minutes surrounding council proceedings are stripped of almost any shred of what meaningful discussion might have proceeded. The content of citizen delegations, whether proposing constructive change or leveling withering critiques is entirely missing from the notes. Recording devices (routine in many other councils) have thus far been banned. And during the present term of Mayor Milne, Question Period has simply been cancelled. These behaviors form a pattern. The citizens of Southgate, are governed by an agenda that is negotiated behind closed doors, protected through a code of secrecy, and imposed upon the public with a forceful exercise of legal maneuvers, and PR spin. Thats the exercise of power. Its anything but the exercise of leadership. So today, as a Council finds itself deadlocked over what might actually be routine policy decisions, and a small cadre of insiders celebrate that we have a waste park operating in the biggest village in our township, citizens across the township might look forward to the 2014 election, and ask themselves is there a better way to be governed, and if so, can I play a role in bringing about that change. The answer in both cases is almost certainly yes. CG

Trivia Challenge III

Bring your family. Bring
your friends. And bring your favourite snacks. Its time for Trivia Challenge III! Come on out to the Dundalk Community Centre September 21 at 7:30pm
(At $10 /person, its wicked good fun for a great cause!)

Join a day of celebration with our NDACT friends: who fought the mega quarry battle and who are supporting our community fight for the future of Dundalk!

FOOD & WATER FIRST CELEBRATION!

Sunday, August 18 11am til 3pm Honeywood Community Centre

Wagon rides, farmers market, music & art, local chefs & food! Admission $5 (5 and under, free) Food $2 to $5/serving TICKETS: www.ndact.com