Town hall meetings on proposed waste incineration project get underway
Town hall meetings on proposed waste incineration project get underway
St-Joseph Hall in L’Isle-aux-Allumettes was near capacity on Monday night (March 25) for the first of several town hall meetings hosted by MRC Pontiac on their proposed waste incineration project. The meetings were first announced just five days before at the MRC council’s monthly public meeting on March 20, where a contingent of around 40 citizens voiced their opposition to the project.
The meeting was led by L’Isle-aux-Allumettes Mayor Corey Spence. While the evenings were billed as a discussion of the initial business plan that the MRC contracted out to Deloitte at a cost of roughly $120,000, it wasn’t presented until more than a half-hour into the meeting. Spence first played several Youtube videos produced by the federal government and other organizations discussing reducing waste and the “circular economy”. He also spent time scrutinizing the claims of Dr. Paul Connett, the primary speaker at a town hall meeting on March 2 organized by citizens opposed to the project.
One slide featured an anthropomorphic drawing of the Earth looking feverish and Spence quipped that it was his preferred way of describing climate change.
The microphone system wasn’t functional and Spence skimmed through the text-dense slides from the report’s executive summary at a fast clip. The size of the text on the slides made them impossible to read for all but a handful of attendees. The main points in the summary had to do with identifying the optimal technology for the facility (incineration), cost/benefit analysis of incineration compared to landfill, and the ratio of public and private funding for the facility.
The MRC has refused to release the documentation provided by Deloitte until after the town halls have wrapped up. Pontiac Warden Jane Toller told CHIP 101.9 last week that she was concerned the data might be misinterpreted and making it public beforehand could reduce the turnout at the town halls.
One point that Spence highlighted from the report was that Deloitte must give consent prior to the public distribution of the document.
“[The report] is prepared for the use of MRC Pontiac, any distribution of this report will require consent from Deloitte and [technical subcontractor] Ramboll,” he read from the slide show.
When asked if they had requested this consent, he deferred to Toller, who said that she “didn’t think we needed permission” and reiterated that the documents would be released in April after the final town hall meeting.
The presentation lasted around an hour and was followed by a question and answer period.
The upcoming town hall meetings are as follows:
Wednesday April 3 – Shawville United Church Hall (410 rue Main)
Tuesday April 9 – Campbell’s Bay RA Hall (2 rue Second)
Wednesday April 10 – Raymond Johnston Community Centre in Otter Lake (394 rue Tessier)
