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Tiny vows to fight on A lawyer working for Tiny Township says the district officer for the Ministry of the En- vironment is interfering with Tiny's attempts to secure ministry approval for a new land- fill site. Harry Dahme also claims that Tiny and the North Simcoe Waste Managment Associa- tion will not have separate Environmental Assessment hearings. Dahme, a lawyer with David Estrin and Associates, is representing Tiny throughout the environmental assessment process. He has expressed surprise over recent remarks made by Ian Gray, MOE's District Officer and accused him of "speaking out of both sides of his mouth."' "Ian Gray has a personal conflict with Tiny. When Perkinsfield accepted all this li- quid waste back in the 70s, Ian Gray was in- volved with the Ministry of the Environment. So he is indirectly responsible for it." "He wants to stop Tiny from going to a hearing because it might prove embarassing for him." Gray made statements at the last meeting of the NSWMA and to the Penetanguishene Citizen which predicted Tiny would not enter the environmental assessment hearings as planned but would be delayed "six months." This was all based on a report from a sociologist within MOE which accused Tiny of ignoring "sociological factors"' in its selec- tion of a new landfill site. At the time, Tiny's deputy reeve, Peter Brasher, attacked the document and qualifications of its author. Now Dahme says the document's impor- tance has been exagerrated. "When you prepare a draft report for an Environmental Assessment, there is presub- mission consultation where you circulate the draft to government agencies and the public. Then Keith Neuman comes on the scene. He did not look at the NSWMA's draft assess- ment; the first one he looked at was Tiny's."' Dahme says he is "glad" that Neuman wrote about his concerns. But the lawyer has problems with the ma- jor issue which was raised in the report, that of equity. The issue of equity in an environmental assessment concerns the fairness of choos- ing a landfill site location, and ensuring that one area isn't more consistently dumped on than another. Dahme says the equity issue came out of the Peel Township assessment where it was decided that certain areas were always being selected as prime choices for a landfill site. "If Neuman wants to talk about equity, he should be asking why the NSWMA is going to Tiny with its site." Dahme says he has written "a fairly long letter" back to Neuman explaining that "fairness is up to the municipality." Dahme. says the environmental asssess- ment was filed with the ministry two weeks ago and is now under government review. "So we're about two-and-a-half months behind the NSWMA." Dahme claims that the Association doesn't want a public hearing. "The Ontario Environmental Assessment Board and the Ontario Municipal Board both know that Tiny wants to go to a hearing but they don't know that the NSWMA doesn't." But Dahme says the Association "can't possibly avoid" public hearings over its selec- tion of a landfill site. "It only makes sense to have one hearing and when I spoke to Gary Gallon (the Minister of the Environment's senior advisor) he said, 'You're right.' " Brasher expressed bewilderment over why reports for Tiny were being circulated to the NSWMA. "We don't receive-reports about the pro- gress of their assessment," he said. Organ donations The MPP for Simcoe East has asked the provincial government to encourage peo- ple to sign up for organ donations. Al McLean claims that "'a lot of people would gladly donate if only they knew how to." In other legislature business, McLean asked that the third Monday of every February be proclaimed Simcoe County Day. Happy Christmas Again, from all of us to all of you, have a great Christmas and a terrific New Year. week, on Thursday instead of Friday wishes everyone a joyous holiday season. when the Huronia Weekend is published. We will see you again, one day earlier this Al McLean The staff at the Penetanguishene Citizen Drovince cs