Thursday, May 10, 2012

MAY 7 COMMITTEE HANSARD

The official Committee hansard on the Aggregate Resources Act Review is at this link:
http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/committee-proceedings/committee_transcripts_details.do?locale=en&Date=2012-05-07&ParlCommID=8958&BillID=&Business=Aggregate+Resources+Act+review&DocumentID=26292

Points of interest:

The subcommittee met on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 and decided to start the hearings on Monday May 7 with the following to be invited:
  • staff from the Ministry of Natural Resources;
  • authors of the consolidated report titled State of the Aggregate Resource in Ontario Study (SAROS);
  • and Mr. Gord Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario.
And on May 7 to invite: 
  • Ontario Stone, Sand and Gravel Association
  • the Association of Municipalities of Ontario
That was it.

No invite was extended to anyone else, despite the government having received thousands of letters about the Melancthon MegaQuarry.

They also decided to hold the hearings over 4 days in Toronto only and advertise in ONLY the Toronto papers.

Committee member Michael Coteau had this to say:
It is unfortunate indeed that this meeting is not the first time the public is hearing about the contents of last week’s subcommittee meeting.

REALLY?  Was that the intent that no one from the unannointed and unwashed should know about the review in advance?

He then goes on to slag Sylvia Jones who let the cat out of the bag and good for her, by stating on the record: 
Instead, we all got to read about it in a press release put out by the member for Dufferin–Caledon on the weekend.
... Conservative members violated a very important rule of this committee and this Legislature, which is that the discussion of in-camera proceedings are to remain private until such time as they are reported to the committee and to the House.

What a dope.

And if you would like to personally thank Sylvia for doing the right thing, her email is:
sylvia.jonesco@pc.ola.org

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11 May, 2012

    Sylvia stood her ground. "As for the fact that you are suggesting that I have done something wrong as an MPP by notifying my community about when public hearings have begun, which by the way was three days from the press release, is absolutely ludicrous. If there is anything that we have a responsibility to do as MPPs, it’s to make sure that our members and our communities are aware of what’s happening in Queen’s Park." The "official" press release was scheduled for Monday morning in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, L’Express, the Ottawa Citizen, Le Droit, and the Sudbury Star newspapers notifying people of the hearing on the same afternoon.

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  2. Anonymous12 May, 2012

    It has become blatantly obvious that McGuinty's modus operandi is to say the right things before an election, keep the public ignorant, and then push his own agendas through. Agendas that are in the interest of big business and have the power to wreak havoc on the future of our province's resources. The environment be damned. This was how the mega quarry was going to be realized. There was an assumption that people were ignorant, asleep, or just too caught-up in their daily task of surviving to pay attention. Hah. Hopefully the Liberals are starting to figure-out that this won't work for them anymore. We are not sleeping. We are watching them and we are NOT powerless. We are fighting to protect our land and our water and our children's future. Our only mistake was EVER believing that the government was doing the same.....

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