Dear CBRM Council Candidate:
The Sierra Club Cape Breton Group seeks your position on a number of local and regional environmental issues, prior to the municipal elections. CBRM faces a number of important, pressing ecological problems and challenges. We will be compiling responses from all candidates, and will issue a report card to the local media prior to October 16. Please provide frank and honest answers to the following queries, and submit your response by October 8 at 4:00pm, to the Sierra Club office (under door if closed) in the Steelworkers Hall (upstairs), or by mail to Sierra Club of Canada Cape Breton Group, 369 Prince St., Sydney, NS B1P 5L2 .
1- Tar Ponds & Coke Ovens cleanup:
Study or Review: Prior cleanup attempts failed. 15 years and much more than $50,000,000 was largely wasted. Over 15 years ago local citizens and environmentalists sought a full panel environmental assessment; had this occurred, the prior failures could probably have been avoided. There will be either a “Comprehensive Study” or a “Full Panel Review”. Unlike the comprehensive study, a full panel review will allow an examination of the alternatives to the proposed burn & bury options.
Do you favour: i. A Full Panel Review _________
Or ii. A Comprehensive Study _________
Comments, if any:____________________________________________________________________
Buffer zone: The promised $400 million cleanup funding does not include remediating homes or compensating residents living in homes adjacent to the Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens.
Do you support a voluntary buy-out in a 300 metre buffer zone?
Yes ________
No ________
Comments, if any: ___________________________________________________________________
Technology selection: The current “cleanup” proposal by the Federal and Provincial governments includes extracting and then incinerating PCB-laden material on site or nearby, and capping the remaining wastes where they are.
Do you support the incineration of PCB waste?
Yes ________
No ________
Is permanently cementing over the majority of the waste an acceptable solution?
Yes ________
No ________
Will you support proven innovative cleanup technologies that are cost-effective and that will permanently and safely destroy the waste?
Yes ________
No ________
Comments, if any:____________________________________________________________________
2- Coxheath Quarry: There is strong citizen opposition to the development of a rock quarry on Coxheath Mountain.
Do you support the development of rock quarries in or near residential and recreational areas?
Yes ________
No ________
If elected as a Councillor, will you support changes to provincial legislation to prohibit quarries near residential areas?
Yes ________
No ________
Comments, if any:____________________________________________________________________
3- Strip Mining: Broughton, Birch Grove, Sydney Mines, and Boularderie are all proposed sites for so called “reclamation” surface coal mining.
Do you support a ban on strip mining?
Yes _______
No _______
Current legislation allows 10,000 tonnes of coal to be extracted without environmental review or community input. Will you work to eliminate such exemptions?
Yes _______
No _______
Comments, if any:____________________________________________________________________
4- Water supply: Over the past 8 years, Sydney has been taking 3.5 million gallons of groundwater per day from underneath the properties of citizens living between the regional Hospital, Albert Bridge, and Marion Bridge. An agreement was signed between representatives of these citizens and CBRM that there would be no increase in water being taken without approval of the representatives of these citizens. Recently the CBRM applied and obtained a permit to take an additional 300,000 gallons per day, without the permission of the representatives of the water supply area. Many private wells have gone dry in the water supply area over the last 8 years, and with the increased extraction more wells will likely go dry.
Will you support a council resolution to reverse the recent increased extraction of groundwater from this area?
Yes _______
No _______
Will you support the development of a permanent alternative water supply for Sydney by building a water treatment plant for the reservoir lakes in the Sydney River area?
Yes _______
No _______
Comments, if any:____________________________________________________________________
5- Pesticides by-law: The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that municipalities have the right to regulate pesticide use.
Will you support a ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides within CBRM, similar to recent changes in Halifax?
Yes _______
No _______
Comments, if any:____________________________________________________________________
6- Municipal Incinerator: Our municipal incinerator on Grand Lake Road is the last municipal incinerator in the province. All other municipalities have met the 50% waste-reduction target set out by our provincial government. Our municipality has not met this target.
Will you support the closure of the CBRM incinerator, and the implementation of aggressive waste-reduction strategies successfully implemented by other municipalities?
Yes _______
No _______
Comments, if any:____________________________________________________________________
7- Smoking by-law: Our municipality has lead the way in Nova Scotia by further restricting smoking in public places.
If elected will you defend our new smoking by-law from any future attempts to weaken it?
Yes _______
No _______
Comments, if any:____________________________________________________________________
8- Sewage Treatment: What will you do as an elected councillor to implement a comprehensive sewage treatment plan for the whole municipality? (Please answer in the space provided below)