Clarify and reassure
Dear Editor,
After reading the letters on incineration in last week’s Equity, (The burning question and Incinerate or not, THE EQUITY, October 18, 2023), I felt compelled to clarify and reassure the writers.
The MRC Council of Mayors voted unanimously in October 2022 to conduct a business plan to obtain necessary information on an MRC Pontiac Energy from Waste project.
The financial business model research is proposed to be provided by Deloitte in Toronto, and the environmental waste solutions by Ramboll, a Danish firm that has extensive international experience.
It is important to look at the example in Europe rather than North America to learn from best practises of the cleanest and safest technologies available in the world today. Ramboll has worked on many projects in Canada including a small incinerator in PEI (50,000 tons). They have a large incinerator in Copenhagen, Denmark which releases steam emissions without toxins and is claimed to be the cleanest energy from waste in the world. It is also a demonstration facility for decarbonization which captures over 500,000 tons of carbon annually. It doubles as a tourist attraction with ski hill on the top and climbing walls on the sides!
The opportunity to send steam heat to nearby businesses is also attractive. We have learned that it could be possible through district heating to supply the Pontiac Hospital in Shawville. In Copenhagen they reduce operating costs through heating Olympic-sized pools.
There will be public consultation allowing everyone to have a voice, especially through the environmental assessment process. We will be working closely with the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. They will not allow a project to proceed that does not meet all of the health and environmental expectations.
There is no connection or possible leaching to the Ottawa River or the soil around the facility. The trucks dump waste inside the facility. The study will also provide environmental solutions for the ash which does not involve landfill. In Denmark, they use the inert ash for concrete and asphalt.
I have already addressed the issue of trucks which will bring waste from transfer stations (not every neighbourhood), which lessens the number and they will probably be electric. Also, fifteen years ago at the same site, 50 per cent of the trucks arriving daily from Ontario carried pulp and biomass. Pontiac has enjoyed previous partnerships with Ontario.
In the end, this is a long process which begins with obtaining important information so that we can properly evaluate whether this facility provides the best solution for residual waste and whether it will be economically viable. I am committed to updating and involving our residents every step of the way.
Jane Toller, Warden MRC Pontiac
Remembrance without religion
Dear Editor,
Upon hearing that our federal government has decided that chaplains will no longer be allowed to say a Christian or any religious prayer at any official government Remembrance Day ceremony, rather than anger, it invoked a sense of disappointment.
My uncle Dan Stephens served in the 19th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. The chaplain for this unit was Sergeant Murray O. Kirby from Oshawa, Ontario. He embraced his duties enthusiastically, conducting Sunday morning services in a shed, a field, or any other appropriate place he could find. He also understood his purpose was to guide, counsel and comfort the soldiers within his unit.
Unfortunately, Sergeant Kirby never got the chance to support his unit on the battlefield. Just as they reached the beach of Normandy, their vehicle took a direct hit from a mortar shell, killing Sergeant Kirby and another soldier sitting beside him, and wounding two others.
I suggest all MPs and government officials who agreed with and supported the removal of Christian prayer by chaplains from Remembrance Day ceremonies spend November 11th educating themselves on the great sacrifice our Canadian veterans made and continue to make for this country.
How does exclusions promote inclusion? It doesn’t, it only creates division.
Garnet Stephens, Clarendon
Bravo Hector Soucie
Dear Editor,
I was filled with pride and admiration for this man who described our dire situation in the Pontiac (Are we witnessing the planned death of Pontiac’s forestry sector? THE EQUITY, October 11, 2023).
About a year ago I wrote a letter to THE EQUITY about how I counted over 40 semis a day taking our forest products out of the county while our people are unemployed and our mills sit idle. Our representative responded and said big things were coming . . . but alas nothing happened. Why do we give up so easily?
When the paper mill was closing we met with our MNA asking her to do something, however, she threw her hands up in the air, and said “Paper is a thing of the past, get used to it.”
Hector please come back … we need you!
Lawrence Stafford, Campbell’s Bay
