Dear Editor,
I understand how difficult it can be to set an annual budget to operate an entire municipality, and I don’t envy those that have the task of completing it.
However, I must ask this question. Why is Meaford keeping any budget at all for a Waste-to-Energy (WTE) project? It was a great step to take half of the $51,000 away from the project, but why not all? I’m sure there are much more pressing and important issues that could use the remaining $26,000.
Regardless of the outcome of the review of the FIT program, whether it is Partners Energy Group (PEG) or some other company why should Meaford set aside any money to pay for an application to the Ontario Power Authority. If the company can’t come up with the money for the application, how are they going to fund the project?
Meaford Against Gasification Group (MAGG) members have collected over 2,000 signatures from residents who do not want a WTE project. The environmental and health impacts that incineration causes are staggering. MAGG has also proven with various phone calls, emails and web searches that the proposal by PEG had falsified data in it. The unit that PEG wants to build has never been tested as a full scale WTE operation using municipal solid waste (MSW) or “wood waste”. The only testing documentation that has been found on the proposed “Brookes unit” was used on a short term basis to burn animal carcasses, wheat straw or pig feces….hardly the same as a burning MSW and/or wood waste 24/7, 365 days a year.
I understand that the WTE proposal has been tabled until PEG holds a public meeting. (The first of which was mysteriously cancelled 5 days before the scheduled meeting after the managing director was confronted on the radio about WTE not qualifying for the FIT program.) But why is the municipality still entertaining the idea of dealing with a company who falsely presented themselves?
Meaford doesn’t want to make in onto MacLean's Magazines list of the 99 dumbest things politicians spent public money on do they? (Unlike the Durham region who spent taxpayers money on a lavish ground-breaking party for the Durham incinerator.)
Food for thought.
Jenean Lush, MAGG Spokesperson
+ 55 + 5 
