Another Example Of Openess/Transparency At City Hall

NIMBYs win another one!

Did Miller miss better landfill deal?

Lower price on the table last year
But no action was taken, sources say

Sep. 21, 2006. 05:32 AM

ROYSON JAMES

CITY COLUMNIST

Toronto paid much more than necessary to dump its trash in the Green Lane Landfill site outside St. Thomas, Toronto Star sources say.

Last year, Mayor David Miller ignored an offer to dump at Green Lane for roughly the same price as shipping to Michigan — one of the cheaper places to send garbage — unconcerned about talks of the border closing to Toronto's trash.

And as the secret offer sat on his desk — without council's knowledge — the border wars heated up, the price jumped, and Toronto was forced into a more expensive secret deal this week, sources charge.

Councillor Jane Pitfield, the works committee chair and the lead city politician on the garbage file at the time in February 2005, confirmed yesterday that a deal was in place.Another source said the price offer to ship and dump garbage was about $1 a tonne more than the Michigan fees, pegged at about $63 a tonne today."There was no sense of urgency," the source said. "They could have had it a year and a half ago at a fraction of the cost and no liability, and still continue with recycling targets."

Pitfield said representatives from Green Lane approached the city to make a deal that would see the trash diverted from Michigan, where lawmakers had been pledging a fight to stop the cross-border shipments."It sat in his office for three months and nothing happened," said Pitfield, who is now challenging Miller for the mayor's title. "Miller felt we could legally stay in Michigan till 2010 or 2020. It completely took me by surprise yesterday, this proposal to actually buy it."

Miller yesterday admitted the city's purchase price of the Green Lane Landfill would mean disposal costs of between $63 and $88 a tonne. He said he can't disclose the figure until the deal is finalized over 90 days.But the difference in cost could reach $17 million a year, for 15 to 20 years, over the life of the landfill. Toronto dumps about 700,000 tonnes a year.

Miller says it's better to own the site than holding dumping rights, as was proposed earlier. This way the city controls its destiny. Besides, Toronto will get tipping fees from those using the dump.A staff spokesman said Miller didn't act on the earlier Green Lane proposal because it was speculative and Toronto needed something tangible.

Sources, however, paint a picture of a mayor not aware of the urgency of the matter, who dithered while the waste crisis grew."It's a huge missed opportunity. We kept it confidential. The fact is we didn't act on it. It never went anywhere; it just stayed in his office," the source said.

There will be revenues from owning the landfill, but there are added costs: including liability, perpetual care, managing and operating the site.City councillors were shown some figures in a quickly called private council meeting Tuesday. All documents were collected at the end of the private session to prevent leaks to the media. One source yesterday said the deal will cost the city $500 million, with half that being the actual cost of buying the landfill.

Others say buying a landfill sends the wrong signal that Toronto is back in the garbage business and is prepared to dump on its neighbours.In a delicious political twist, the councillors arguing against the purchase of the landfill site were the ones in favour of Toronto's plans to ship waste to Kirkland Lake. And the ones, including Mayor Miller, singing the praises of the new site are the virulent and vocal opponents of the Kirkland Lake proposal and landfill in general.

Miller yesterday tried to argue that the Green Lane landfill is a much more environmentally sound site than the Adams Mine. But even if his argument rang a bit hollow, it is likely what Torontonians want to hear.

Weary of decades of garbage talk, embarrassed about dumping on their neighbours only if their neighbours raise a stink about it, and skittish about incineration (the only known made-in-Toronto solution), they are likely praising Miller.

Meanwhile, the headline in The London Free Press on Wednesday was T.O. DUMPS ON US.As if Hogtown cares.Stripped of all the political intrigue and the hypocrisy of environmentalists advocating a hole in the ground as the solution to mounting waste problems, the bottom line on Toronto finding a new home for its trash is this: Hip, hip, hooray!!

Yes, Miller shoehorned the deal into a few hours of secret council talk, embargoed, in camera, without a chance for sober second thought, without the messy business of public disclosure and public input.Yes, this runs smack into Miller's promise of open and transparent government.

Yes, on the eve of an election, he's hurried this through council, without proper scrutiny.

Yes, many of the councillors cannot give you rudimentary details of this deal, once they get past the basics. And they can't even tell you for sure when the landfill site has to be closed.

Yes, speed bumps are given more protracted hearings.

Yes, all of the above is true.

But so is this: Most Torontonians don't care about all that. Tired of the garbage talk over the years and the prospects of an incinerator in their neighbourhood, they will gladly swallow this deal. Miller read them correctly.