In a unanimous 6-to-0 vote, a motion to support a proposed garbage incinerator project for the Pontiac went down to defeat at the Otter Lake municipal council meeting last week.

Mayor Terry Lafleur, who supports the project, as do all 18 of the MRC Pontiac mayors, read out the motion to the six councillors at the Tuesday evening meeting. The text, identical to the motions provided by the MRC to all 18 municipalities, concluded with the resolution that Otter Lake “supports establishing an energy-from-waste facility in the Pontiac, serving the Outaouais, the City of Ottawa and Renfrew County.”

Councillor Robin Zacharias opened the discussion, saying he wanted to make a few comments before the vote.

“I’ve got two main concerns. One is that we’ll be bringing in garbage from other regions and incinerating it,” he said.

THE EQUITY was able to reach Zacharias and several of his fellow councillors by phone on Friday.

“Ninety-nine percent of the garbage will be coming from regions other than the Pontiac – 395,000 tons will be coming from elsewhere,” Councillor Zacharias told THE EQUITY. “We’ll be sacrificing the health of our citizens for the benefit of others, and I’m not sure our citizens know that.”

He said there are indications that the Covanta garbage incinerator in Durham-York, the facility that Pontiac mayors and directors-general toured last November, has exceeded its allowable pollutant levels from time to time, including once when its dioxin emissions are believed to have been 14 times the limit.

“As councillors, we have to protect all of our citizens,” Zacharais said.

His other concern has to do with the claim that just three per cent of the 400,000 tonnes of garbage processed each year in the proposed Pontiac facility will remain as residual waste. He has trouble squaring this with the much higher figure of 17 per cent claimed by the Durham-York facility. He says the Toronto Environmental Alliance puts the actual Durham-York figure number closer to 30 per cent, ten times the rate predicted for the Pontiac facility.

But even with just three per cent residual waste, Zacharias says we’ll have a problem.

“Three per cent of 400,000 tonnes is 12,000 tonnes, which is almost two-and-a-half times Pontiac’s current total garbage production of 5,000 tonnes per year,” he said.

“And it’s toxic! If we had to take it to our current landfill site, would they even take it there?”

Councillor Jennifer Quaile has been Otter Lake’s representative on MRC Pontiac’s Waste Management Committee for the past year. In a statement she read into the meeting’s minutes, she said that garbage incineration plants are a bad idea and that she strongly opposes the motion.

“Their toxic emissions have proven to be extremely dangerous to human health, fish and animal life, and agricultural produce. They include nitrous oxides, dioxins, and mercury that can cause cancer, reproductive damage and birth defects,” said Quaile.

The councillor said that the proposal to bring a mega garbage incineration plant to the Pontiac is short on facts and that the presentation given in two town hall meetings in June ignores the scientific evidence.

“In the interests of our residents, I will not support such a biased and dangerous proposition when there are plenty of alternatives to divert waste from landfill that are much safer for our environment and much less costly,” said Quaile.

Councillor Penny Dubeau agreed.

“I think it’s dangerous. And I think it’s not going to be good for people’s health. There’s a lot of toxins,” she told THE EQUITY.

“I don’t think the public is aware of all that’s going on. I don’t believe it’s going to be a good thing,” said Dubeau.

“How many tonnes of garbage are going to come into the Pontiac?” asked Councillor Serge Sabourin. “I am in favour of having work in the Pontiac, but it’s pollution I mind. We’ve got beautiful forests and lakes, and I don’t think garbage mixes with all that stuff. It’s touristic around here, that’s the big income.

“We’re clean around here. And myself, I worked all my life in forestry, I’m 67 years old, and that’s how I want it to stay for the next generation, nice and clean,” he told THE EQUITY.

“I don’t know anything about it, and we need more information,” said Councillor Daniel Lamarche. “I have no documents, nothing. You don’t decide a big decision like that,” he said.

“Council did their homework,” said Mayor Lafleur in a telephone interview with THE EQUITY on Friday.

“They asked a bunch of questions. They went to events hosted by the warden,” he said.

“I guess they have more questions than they have answers, and they made their decision,” said the philosophical mayor.

Asked how he was able to indicate his support for the project at the MRC level without the backing of his own municipal council, Mayor Lafleur said his own council had asked him the same question.

“Just like the [municipal] council, I sit on a council of mayors at the MRC, and when we’re there, we express what we think is best for the MRC,” he explained.

“Getting a feasibility study on energy from waste, I’m all for it. It is a potential source of 50 jobs for the Pontiac, and a possible solution to our landfill problem. So, all options are on the table, as far as I am concerned.”

On Sunday, Pontiac Warden Jane Toller shared her thoughts on the matter with THE EQUITY via text message.

“Being a willing host for an energy from waste facility does not require 100 per cent support,” said the warden.

“It is necessary to have discussion, questions and debate,” she said.

“Fortunately, 18 out of 18 mayors support the proposed project. This allows MRC Pontiac to lead the province in real solutions for climate change. By closing landfills – a major contributor to greenhouse gas – and using waste to produce electricity and steam we can be the model for Quebec. We will benefit environmentally, economically and with energy production.

“It is my hope that with more information and answers to their concerns, the Otter Lake council will reconsider this decision. I believe that there is a lot of support in the community,” she added.

At its June 21 meeting, the MRC created a four-person committee, headed by the warden, to pull together what some have described as a business plan and others a feasibility study for the proposed $450 million venture which, as Warden Toller clarified in her letter published in THE EQUITY last week, “will include any environmental impact.”

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