Charles Dickson

SHAWVILLE June 19, 2023

Fifteen people attended a public information session convened by MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller in Shawville on Monday evening to hear her make the case for an energy-from-waste project she is proposing for the Pontiac. In her 40-minute presentation, the warden described a plan that would see 395,000 tons of garbage trucked to the Pontiac each year from nearby urban areas on both sides of the Ottawa River for incineration in a $450 million facility located by the Ottawa River on the former Smurfit-Stone site in Litchfield.

In a follow-up exchange of views, Jennifer Quaile, an Otter Lake councillor and member of the MRC Pontiac’s Waste Management Committee, expressed concern about the environmental hazards of such a project and proposed that, before going forward, a full and independent evidence-based, publicly-accessible report on the risks and benefits of such a project should be undertaken.