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CCRA PRESIDENT Gay Cowbourne: November 1999
For over two years the CCRA has been lobbying Councillor Moeser to pull together a group of stakeholders to discuss the Manson demolition and site clean-up. As you will remember, in 1997 a sewer easement was dug across the Manson property and a large quantity of asbestos was discovered. Over thirty truck loads of asbestos were removed from the site, without the knowledge of the Ministry of the Environment or this community. When we found out about this, members of the CCRA and WRCA literally stormed the offices of the Works and Environment Department and demanded to be admitted to a meeting where the illegal removal was being discussed. The outcome was that a committee was formed to create an Action Plan for the safe continuation of the work on the easement. The two community associations were a part of that committee. Once the work was completed, the committee was disbanded despite requests from the CCRA and WRCA to continue planning for the future demolition and site remediation, which is now upon us. While we thank Councillor Moeser for finally choosing the date, time and place and for sending out the invitations, let us be very clear about one thing: for over two years the CCRA and WRCA had been asking him to organize the formation of this group. Since April, members of the CCRA, WRCA and PUVHA have been meeting regularly with representatives from the City of Toronto's Urban Planning and Development and Building Departments and Lynda Lynch of Environment Watch, a company hired to act for the proponent of the demolition and site clean up. Others around the table have occasionally included Councillor Moeser, the late Councillor Faubert and Steve Gilchrist, MPP, but most often it was their assistants who attended on their behalf. The Ministry of Labour attended frequently. The Toronto Health Department came once or twice. Representatives from the Ministry of the Environment came twice and then, despite letters from me and from Councillor Moeser, they adamantly refused to attend again The Separate School Trustee came once. The Public School Trustee never attended. Since being hired by the City, the Peer Reviewer attended the meetings. The Peer Reviewer is employed by the City of Toronto to review the Demolition and Site Remediation plans. He will then write a report for the City, prior to the City issuing a Demolition Permit. Without the Demolition Permit, work cannot begin on the site. Let's be brutally honest about this whole issue for one moment. Air-borne asbestos fibres are a carcinogen - if inhaled they can cause cancer. A plan has been put in place to demolish a building that once produced asbestos products and which still contains asbestos dust. The surrounding land, known to contain asbestos, is to be cleaned-up. The asbestos is to be loaded into trucks and shipped off site. The CCRA is committed to doing whatever it can do to ensure that the health and safety of this community is protected during this process but we are not experts. We are all volunteers who have had to learn a lot about asbestos, demolition processes, air monitoring, Ministry guidelines and more. We believe that you, the community, has a fundamental right to know what is going on in your back yard and that you have the right to ask questions and to demand answers. For several months we argued very loudly that the October 13 meeting was necessary. Many times it was pointed out to us that there is no legal requirement for such a meeting. Absolute refusals came from Environment Watch on behalf of the proponent and alternatives were offered in the form of an explanatory booklet or a drop in type of Open House. Knowing what this community expects, we insisted on the format of a presentation with a public question and answer session. Finally the proponent agreed. Very early in the procedure, in preparation for informing the community about the work, it was agreed that a newsletter would be created. Believe it or not, it took months of meetings to reach a consensus on wording which would satisfy all of the parties involved. Once a final version was decided upon, the City of Toronto was responsible for arranging the delivery of the newsletter, in advance of the meeting, to every home in the area, using Canada Post. It was agreed that it would be printed on brightly coloured paper to attract attention. The City of Toronto was also to be responsible for posting notices around the community and on the Mowat signboard. (The CCRA's offer of help with the latter was declined.) However, the carefully planned public notification process failed to materialise. Most of the notices were delivered over the Thanksgiving weekend and not by Canada Post. Most were literally rolled up inside an advertisement. Most were printed on white paper and many streets, including the new developments without mailboxes, did not receive them at all. Mowat was not asked to display a notice of the meeting and the community notices were not posted. The CCRA stepped in at this point. We printed flyers for distribution around the community and we asked Mowat to put up a notice on their signboard. We also instigated an information network - told everyone we came into contact with and asked them to pass it on. Individuals living in the newer areas printed signs and posted them on the communal mailboxes. As tax paying members of the public, we assume that there are "government agencies and people who watch out for us" in such potentially dangerous circumstances, don't we? The people who are "watching out for us" in this instance were at the October 13 meeting. They failed to deliver the notice of the meeting throughout the community. They couldn't answer the questions about Emergency Response Plans (because, as I write this there isn't one) nor could they satisfy the audience as to why additional air monitors were not necessary throughout the community, when previous asbestos removals have had several off site. They didn't answer the question about precautions for strong winds during work. It was a CCRA representative who read from the proposed plan that if the average wind speed reaches 60 kilometres per hour for a two-hour period then the work will stop. 60KPH winds are considered to be gale force 8 on the Beaufort Scale and ships are advised to head for harbour and small limbs are broken from trees. Bear in mind that average wind speeds mean that some of the winds must be considerably stronger than this. Admittedly, many questions were answered at the Open House and the answers certainly helped to allay some of the concerns of the audience. However, for a project of this nature, there were too many unanswered questions around important components of the demolition and site remediation. For instance, one crucial factor is the Emergency Response Plan. I was pleased to hear a commitment from the proponent that no work will start on site until such a Plan is in place. We also have the assurance of Councillor Moeser that until an Emergency Response Plan is in place, the Demolition Permit will not be issued. The CCRA still has many unanswered questions. For instance, who will have the authority on site to shut down work if they consider there is a danger? We would like a name. Will there be a 1-800 number for us to call if we have concerns? We will continue to ask these and other questions and I encourage you to do the same. This project will impact on your neighbourhood. It is up to you to make sure that your safety is guaranteed. Ask the questions and demand the answers. Write or call your local representatives (their telephone numbers are on the same page as their reports here) and don't be satisfied until you have guarantees for your health and safety throughout this project. |