Communities united in opposing Toronto toxins

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Toronto city council is poised to make a decision about shipping more than 20 million tonnes of garbage over 20 years to the Adams Mine site southeast of Kirkland Lake, Ont. as Windspeaker goes to press. Twenty of 36 council members are on record as favoring the proposal, with the vote slated for Oct. 1.

The plan is being vehemently opposed by First Nations on both sides of the Ontario-Quebec border near Lake Timiskaming, and by the majority of non-Natives of the region. Even in the supposed "willing host" towns of Kirkland Lake, Englehart and Larder Lake, the results of Oraclepoll Research show 77 per cent are opposed. In recent weeks, the Quebec government, which has been notably silent about the mine project, has joined them in asking Minister of the Environment David Anderson for a federal environmental review, which is the only way the project can be stopped if Toronto votes yes.

Grand Chief Carol McBride of the Algonquin Nation Secretariat and Timiskaming First Nation, Que., which has been pressuring Quebec, met with Grand Chief Charles Fox of the Chiefs of Ontario, Chief Vernon Roote of the Union of Ontario Indians and other First Nations leaders at the Nipissing reserve Aug. 24.

"We are very concerned about the impact this project will have on health and safety," McBride told them. "Beyond health and safety . . . we hold Aboriginal title to the lands covered by the Adams Mine site, and the law requires that we have a voice in the way in which our traditional lands are to be used." She added that since neither the Ontario government nor Notre Development was accommodating their environmental concerns and legal rights, "they have left us no choice but to fight this out."

Timiskaming First Nation is directly downstream from the Adams Mine.

David Ramsay, MPP for Timiskaming-Cochrane, agrees, and has stated publicly he is willing to go to jail if necessary to stop the garbage leaving Toronto. Federal MP for the area Benoit Serre is also opposed to the project and he expressed concern about potential violence if the scheme goes ahead.

The proponent, Notre Development, is headed by Gordon McGuinty, who detractors say is "at the very least" a good golfing buddy of Ontario Premier Mike Harris, whose record on clean water issues is already a matter of public consternation.

Notre Development is a member of Rail Cycle North, a consortium of five companies in Harris' North Bay riding, that owns the Adams Mine pit. McGuinty insists that transporting Toronto's untreated waste 367 rail miles north of Toronto via train is safe, and so is his system for treating garbage that even he admits has an "active toxic life" of 120 years and must be monitored for 1,000 years.

He also said in a telephone interview Sept. 26 that an environmental assessment has already been done and that Native groups have been consulted every step of the way, so he doesn't know why there is so much opposition this late in the game. He denied there is any new evidence to hold up the process, although Minister Anderson's press secretary said Sept. 26 that the minister had received new information for consideration in making a determination whether to order a federal environmental assessment and had replied to a letter from Chief McBride on that topic.

According to Timiskaming First Nation's land rights officer Allan McLaren, there has been no proper consultation with Native people. That objection is echoed by Wabun Tribal Council, comprised of half a dozen bands in Timiskaming and Cochrane districts in Ontario.

On Sept. 27 McLaren said there was only one meeting between Notre and the Natives that he is aware of, more than a year ago, and he wasn't even invited to that. Still, he attended what he heard was an "information session" not a formal consultation process, along with a representative of the Beaverhouse Native community of Kirkland Lake, whose traditional territory is located on provincial land several miles upstream ofthe proposed dump

Beaverhouse, with fewer than a hundred Native and non-Native members, would not be directly affected if McGuinty's technology-unproved technology, according to McLaren- failed to prevent toxic run-off from the Adams Mine, yet it is the only Native delegate on the community liaison committee that Rail Cycle North was required to establish to gain environmental approval by the province of Ontario.

The committee serves as a "focal point for the local communities and residents" who are "concerned with the operation and impact of the Adams Mine Landfill," according to information on Rail Cycle North's website. Yet Beaverhouse councillor Wayne Wabie said Sept. 26 that they had "dropped back" from participating on the committee because it appeared the other delegates have been "won over" in favor of accepting Toronto's garbage. He said Beaverhouse has always been opposed.

In Kirkland Lake (pop. about 9,000), where the selling point for the project has been the 80 jobs that are supposed to inject money into the former mining town's dire economy, 62 per cent of residents are opposed and so is their mayor.

Below Englehart in the Lake Timiskaming region, 86 per cent of residents oppose Toronto's plan. About 300 people in the town of 1,670 staged a protest during Englehart's fall fair.

Matachewan First Nation, a few miles west of Kirkland Lake, is hosting a rally against the mine on Sept. 30. Another well-attended rally was held in Ville Marie, Que. on Sept. 24, according to McLaren. He added that a peaceful "picnic" would be held very near the Adams mine pit the last weekend in September, but they would not be doing anything that would sway a judge not to grant them an injunction to halt Rail Cycle North from proceeding.

Toronto mayor Mel Lastman, who is pushing to move the garbage North, was unavailable for comment the last week of September, but a spokesman for councillor Jack Layton, who was ill, phoned to say Layton remains vehemently oposed.