TORONTO’S GARBAGE AS AN ELECTION ISSUE

By Ed Corrigan, published in Your Village News, October 13, 2006

    Toronto’s purchase of the Green Lane Landfill has been seized upon by some London Council members as an election issue. Councillor Eagle was reported to have said, “The city should close roads or install toll booths to stop Toronto trash from being dumped in the Green Lane facility...”( London Free Press September 23, 2006).

    Most of Elgin County, including St. Thomas and Aylmer, use the Green Lane facility to dispose of their garbage. They need the roads. Toll roads also require the permission of the lieutenant-governor in council. Toronto has 22 ridings. No political party is going to ignore that reality.

    Green Lane applied for an expansion of their privately owned facility and it was approved by the Environment Minister in June of
2006.  Toronto’s shipments of garbage to Michigan are to end by 2010. This was not a secret. City Council could have intervened in the Environmental Assessment and pressed for limits on garbage from outside of the region. They failed to do so.

    Do not be fooled by political posturing and costly dead end legal challenges. City Council clearly dropped the ball on the Toronto garbage issue.

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