Cape Breton Post, May 24, 1999
by Fran Morrison, John Morrison
To the Editor:
Recently, an alliance has been formed which is comprised of representatives from various facets of the community: Steelworkers, business people, Mi'Kmaq, youth, and labour who are concerned with the negative impacts on health, environment and economy the tar ponds and adjacent sites present to our community.
These people represent many people in our community and the alliance was formed to get some answers from our government partners. There is much public awareness on our plight here and bad publicity for Cape Breton nationally and internationally, but no concrete cleanup solutions on the table to our problem.
Our government partners came to the table with community three years ago when the Honorable Minister Sergio Marchi came to Sydney to view the tar ponds, at which time he called them "Canada's National Shame." He recommended three years ago that a fence be erected around the ponds to keep people away from them while a solution was being found to clean up those ponds. His advice was never taken but now we know from Frederick Street that fences do not keep the poisons away from the people.
Three years later, the tar ponds are still there and our community faces yet another hot summer with the stench and bacteria which will, once again, intrude upon our lives. As far as we know, there are no concrete solutions on the table as to when the cleanup will begin. As far as we know there is no money allocated anywhere for a cleanup of the tar ponds.
We now hear that an announcement is expected in early June to the tune around the same amount already put into a failed plan to clean up the tar ponds in the '80s, which will pertain to separation zones, removal of the domtar tank and cosmetic, surface cleanups at the Coke Ovens as well as a collector sewer to divert sewage from the south pond to the harbour.
This money is not to clean up the tar ponds. In fact, the money is short term and not one red penny will go toward the substantive clean up. As a matter of fact, Mr. Charles Caccia, Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment & Sustainable Development said in a letter to the editor May 20 that "the combined effects of deficit and tax reductions do not permit action in the foreseeable future in terms of finding the necessary funds for the work needed to rehabilitate the sites."
To clean up the largest site in Canada will take several hundred million dollars. Our government should now be budgeting for this money for future recommendations, and according to Mr. Caccia, there is no money.
So we, the community ask: what is the plan?
Fran Morrison, Spokesperson
John Morrison, Spokesperson
on behalf of the Community Alliance communityalliance@canada.com
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