THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT ARE SHAMELESS

Back in 1990-91 it was a pitched battle trying to get the Ontario M.O.E. to seriously pay attention and investigate Varnicolor Chemical. They lied, deceived and misled on a routine basis. After being caught multiple times feeding the media falsehoods it became clear to everyone that they simply could not be trusted to be honest and forthcoming. Once that was established and they were on the defensive we had Varnicolor on the ropes. Whatw as also rweadily apparent was that both the company and regulator (M.O.E.) were reading from the same playbook as well as hiding behind each other's expertise and rapidly dwindling credibility.

After Varnicolor shut down and the owner went to jail a new group became involved in watching their operations. Richard and I moved on to the Uniroyal file. That said we regularily asked for updates on the Varnicolor file and routinely received nothing from the M.O.E. Even years and a decade or two later the M.O.E. were constantly tightlipped about the site. The most egregious failure of the M.O.E. to keep the public involved was in regards to soil excavation at the back of the Elmira Theatre Company and at Motivair on First St. Both these properties shared a property line with Varnicolor and of course solvents and pollution has no respect for property lines somewhat similar to Chemtura and their eastern farm neighbour.

Now the owners of this site (Elmira Pump) are interested in redeveloping the site. We shall have to see what the data tells us as far as contamination and other factors.