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Town should uphold fill by-law

August 20, 2014   ·   0 Comments

Dear editor:
The issue of the Town of New Tecumseth’s ‘willful negligence’ or in more politically correct terms, ‘failure of due diligence’ towards residential property rate payers in favour of corporate citizens will not go away simply because the town’s Committee of the Whole decided to uphold status quo on August 11 with regards to no enhanced protective measures through Municipal site alteration (landfill) by-law enforcement at the Tottenham Airfield on Highway 9.
Moreover, the Town’s attempts to shut out any deputations re: the Tottenham Airfield Corporation from the upcoming August 25th Town Council (Public, hah) meeting will simply be met with increased voter dissatisfaction with the council’s lack of political will (or ability) to tackle intergovernmental issues like the intersection of municipal and federal interests. Did I mention that despite the gloriously prominent positioning of the Province’s Oak Ridges Moraine Act in our Site Alternation bylaw, that Town Council will not take any steps to protect our water quality from possible heavy metal contaminants from more southerly neighbouring municipalities cleaning up portlands and/or building subway links?
The reluctance of council to listen to any of its own residents’ questions and concerns and its unquestioning confidence and loyalty to the Toronto-based triumvirate, Tottenham Airfield Corporation (Brownfield Developments of Toronto), Cole Engineering (Markham), Green Soils (Toronto) as demonstrated on Aug 11th’s Committee of the Whole meeting has left too many ratepayers here shaking their heads in utter disbelief. Is something else going on here that ratepayers are yet again left out of the loop?
The town council’s denigration of first, our own progressive Site Alteration By-law and secondly, the Ontario Superior Court clarification that municipal fill by-laws can be enforced at aerodromes and airport sites, is worse than a waste of taxpayers’ dollars. That our Site Alteration By-law was drafted to be nothing more than window- dressing and lip service rather than an essential environmental safeguard for New Tec communities could only spring from a cynicism of public service that is unforgivable and does not deserve to be returned to public office.
Town councils must balance interests yes; but certainly not to the complete exclusion of its residential ratepayers. If we look at the age demographics of the property-owning residents most affected by dust, noise, and possible water pollutants entering the well water as a result of unchecked development of the TAC through Phases 1,2, and 3, and whose property values would be most affected, I wonder if the councillors might start seeing the conflict as a possible human rights complaint-systemic ageism. Age being the violated protected ground.
• an upcoming municipal election;
• potential lawsuits from residents in several years’ time if our water is compromised and the Town was fully aware of residents’ objections over the TAC project, and
• possible Ontario Human Rights case in which a Municipality is charged with negligence and unfair treatment of a sector of its electorate based on age.
If the Municipality decided to adopt a status quo re: TAC for fear of a hypothetical legal suit from TAC for enforcing corporate compliance with Site Alteration bylaws, the Council should be equally aware of the hypothetical legal suits that might be brought on them by the residents themselves in 2–3 years time. Oh wait… how silly of me for looking into our future, the council can only see until October 27.

Click to access Site-Alteration-and-Fill-By-Law-2012-136.pdf

Moira Wong,
Tottenham

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