I Still Like The Toronto Island As A Dump

EDITORIAL: Toronto: Garbage in, garbage out

Dearest friends in Kirkland Lake:

Hi, remember us? Your pals in Toronto with the big piles of garbage looking for a home? Well, we've solved our problem, thank you very much.

Mayor David Miller got help from his buddy, Premier David -- sorry, Dalton -- McGuinty, who obligingly expanded the capacity of a dump outside London.

Now, the pressure's off -- us. So instead of rolling our trash up to the Adams Mine by train, we'll be rolling it down Hwy. 401, by truck.

Let's be frank. Our man Miller went all-out slamming your landfill site, saying it wasn't a dump and we didn't know the implications of turning it into a huge trash bin.

So, the stars lined up, and Plan B emerged. While we still think your option was a good one, we give the mayor some (very) qualified praise.

At least, having helped to create the mess we were in, he solved what was set to become a nightmare. Had the Michigan border closed on us, dumping our trash anywhere would have cost us a king's ransom.

Instead, $220.3 million of our Christmas money is going to buy a dump which will serve our needs for 15 years. Maybe we can even make some money off tipping fees. As former city budget chief David Soknacki said, it's too good a deal to turn down.

Two things are clear.

n We're never going to be without trash; 100% of it will never be recycled as Miller and council naively hoped.

n Hauling our trash to Michigan was not sustainable and landed us up to our eyeballs in a lot of verbal rubbish from vote-seeking U.S. politicians.

So, hi ho, hi ho, it's off to London we go. Hey, we need to go somewhere! Now, Toronto's stink will still be exported west, just not as far as Michigan, after 2010.

To those who say Toronto should find a solution to our garbage problem within our own city limits, we invite them to join us in the real world.

There's nowhere to put it and any Toronto fix would be tied up for years in environmental assessments.

While Miller's opposed, this deal doesn't, in our view, stop the city from moving toward incineration. You still need a dump for the ash from the burning process.

So, Kirkland Lake, it's officially goodbye.

Your old buddy,

Trashy Toronto.