Give credit when, where credit is due
Updated 1 year ago
Despite criticism from federal Liberal candidate Steve Clarke, Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton deserves credit for acting quickly to have an erroneous list of toxic sites revised.
Last week, The Packet & Times revealed that Orillia's waterfront was on a list that identified 50 contaminated sites in Simcoe North. The city's name appeared seven times for sites that were actually in Meaford. Land in Rama First Nation also appeared several times in error.
Stanton, like many other leaders in the community, was unaware of the list until contacted by The Packet.
In a letter to the editor, Clarke took Stanton to task for his ignorance of the list and for failing to have it corrected.
The list was created by the Liberals in 2002 and was touted by Clarke as a way of improving government transparency. Most of the Simcoe North sites were added after the Conservatives took power, Clarke contends, adding that Stanton should have known about them.
He's right, but the fault seems to lie with government machinery, not Stanton. That machinery has been in place for a long time. Stanton should have been informed when spots in his riding were identified on the list. The same can be said for the municipalities and First Nations on the list, and for other federal agencies, such as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. That didn't happen.
Once Stanton was aware of the list, he acted quickly. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans was predicting it would take a month to correct the errors, but the task was done by the end of the week, apparently at Stanton's urging. He also obtained a copy of a 2005 report detailing testing done in the Port of Orillia to acquaint himself with the details of the reported contamination.
As this cold election campaign becomes official, Clarke and the Liberals will no doubt attempt to hit the Tories hard on the Conservatives' environmental record.
Rightly so.
But while the Conservatives have all but ignored the environment as a big issue at the national level, Stanton's record locally is quite strong. His efforts to shine a light on the neglected Trent-Severn Waterway paid off with a major study of the system, followed by an action plan and the federal government has been forthcoming with funding for the restoration and preservation of Lake Simcoe.
If the Liberals of Simcoe North and Clarke are going to pick a fight with Stanton over environmental issues, it will have to be on broader philosophical and economic terms.
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