JAG inept at community relations work: memo
Donham's note to MP says recommendations unrealistic
By Tanya Collier MacDonald
Cape Breton Post
Monday, June 26, 2003
A caustic memo never meant for
public eyes dismisses as "inept"
the Joint Action Group's community
relations work and suggests the
six-year process of finding cleanup
solutions has produced
wildly unrealistic recommendations.
The note, obtained by the
Cafe Breton Post, has the
spokesperson for a provincial
team overseeing the cleanup
effort attacking JAG for recent
community consultation efforts
held, in Point Aconi.
Written by Parker Donham,
spokesperson for the Sydney
Tar Ponds Agency, the note
outlines a host of criticisms.
Sydney-Victoria MP Mark
Eyking confirms the note was
prepared for him by Donham for
a meeting Eyking had with
Environment Minister David
Anderson June 12.
I knew some of it was a little
strong," said Eyking. "I'm
disappointed it's out there
because it was a personal note to
me - or at least I thought it was."
This spring JAG held a work
shop for residents around Nova
Scotia Power's Point Aconi power
plant to gather feedback on
cleanup options proposed for
Sydney's tar ponds and coke
ovens sites. Fewer than six
people participated.
Since then, news that waste
from the toxic sites could be
incinerated at the power plant
has stirred the community in
that area into action.
JAG has listened to concerns
voiced through subsequent
information sessions with the
residents, has held two work
shops and is planning three
more in outlying communities.
But the one staged in Point
Aconi at the beginning of this
month raised the ire of Donham,
who wrote that the open
house gave critics an opportunity
to frighten local residents
with false claims about the
incineration of tar ponds sludge
in the power plant fuel mix,
known as co-burning.
"This inept start to engaging
the Point Aconi community
makes the political job of selling
a solution that much harder,"
Donham's note says. "It may
well spook Nova Scotia Power
into rejecting any participation
in a co-burning option."
JAG is promoting "unrealistic
expectations within the community
with encouragement
from Environment Canada, it
promotes a cadillac cleanup
solution of dubious feasibility
and affordability. The options
evaluation report prepared for
JAG pegs the cost of this option
at $450 million. In-house risk
analysis carried out over the
last three weeks concluded that
the actual cost of this option
will approach $1 billion.
The note contends that cost has
never been a factor for JAG or
Environment Canada.
"Technically feasible and
fiscally responsible cleanup
options do exist," Donham
writes. "But the constant promotion
of unrealistic options
by JAG and EC [Environment Canada]
impedes the process of
finding such a solution."
According to the note, the
province regrets the removal
from the cleanup process of
Public Works and Government
Services Canada, which the
province sees as having a more
realistic view of what must be
done.
"The province finds it disheartening
that PWGSC has
been pulled off the file last
week. With that decision, the
lead remains firmly in EC's
hands and EC continues to
encourage JAG's increasingly
unhelpful interventions in
community consultation
(driven, in part, by JAG staff,
fearful of losing their jobs).
"All this wastes an enormous
amount of time, at a time
when everyone agrees it would
be to our advantage to move the
project to a decision at the
federal level before November."
Donham doesn't apologize
for bluntness.
"I don't think they thought
they were getting someone who
spoke in cautious, bureaucratic,
sanitized language," he told
the Post.
He said the words he wrote
Were not the policy of the Sydney
Tar Ponds Agency and
didn't reflect its view of Environment
Canada or JAG.
Donham said it was a personal
note to Eyking - a memo
between friends.
"It uses the casual, blunt
language and exaggeration
friends sometimes use amongst
themselves"
Donham said the memo was
meant solely for Eyking and it
wasn't approved by anyone in
provincial government,
although a senior official did
read it before it went to the MP.
Donham declined to reveal that person.
He added his words wouldn't
withstand rigorous fact checking.
But it does represent
some frustrations that I feel."
Dan Fraser, JAG chairperson,
said he is aware of the
briefing note and addressed it
last week during a meeting of
the executive committee, the
tri-government group that
oversees the $62 million cost
shared agreement for the
cleanup.
"I received it in a plain
envelope with no return
address or any indication of
where it came from," said
Fraser.
The letter disturbed him
and he believes it will also concern
every volunteer and government
representative who
has participated in JAG since
1996.
Fraser said JAG is "an advisory
committee to government, and throughout our
existence we depend on our
government partners to provide
us with accurate and complete reports."
He said the lead contracting
party for cleanup work under
the cost-shared agreement is
the province. That work
includes the Remedial Action
Evaluation Report done by
CBCL Ltd. under the direction
of the project management
consulting firm, Conestoga
Rovers & Associates. The scientists
and engineers provided JAG with a shortlist of
options for the tar ponds and
coke ovens sites, and included
timelines and costs for each.
"Now (government) has
done some in-house fine-tuning
and they have determined
it's more than twice the cost,"
said Fraser. "Shouldn't that
have been done well before we
went out to the community?"
He added that "what's significant
is that we are the
receivers of this document.
We depended on it. We depended
on the Sydney Tar Ponds
Agency the lead agency to
approve it, give it to us, and
then it was presented to the
community. Now it would
appear to me that Sydney Tar
Ponds Agency is criticizing
their own approved document."
Fraser said consultation
with Point Aconi residents
was not inept but a "necessary
beginning and a logical continuation
of our public participation process.
"This is clearly an issue for
our government partners to
resolve."
Garth Bangay, Atlantic
regional director general of
Environment Canada, said he
was disappointed by the note.
"This is very unfortunate.
I'm very disturbed that anyone
in the province would write a
note like this. It's dishonest
and is not supported by the
facts. Obviously it will strain
relationships. But we have a
job to do."
Bangay said it's important
for people to understand that
"Environment Canada has at
no time promoted any of the
options. We have taken a very
neutral view all through the
public consultation."
Further discussions with
First Nations are still required
and no decision will be made
by the federal government on
the direction of the cleanup
until at least the fall, he added.
As for the $1 billion figure
mentioned in the memo, Bangay
said he couldn't comment
on work done by Public Works
and Government Services
Canada but added the federal
government is now carefully
looking at the cleanup costs.
Dollar figures reported to
the public previously didn't
include such expenses as an
environmental assessment,
project management, and a
variety of other costs associated
with the project, he said.
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