The Tar Ponds Saga Continues

Facebook entry by Wayne MacKay

Tue, Aug. 11 - 11:16pm

There are a few things which really piss me off. One of them is when public officials ignore the voices of the people, especially when the issue concerns their health and/or safety. Another is when people commit to meetings and then don't show up. Today, I experienced first hand both of these pet peeves. My anger is still boiling and I plan to focus it into positive action. Here is my story...

In early-mid July, I contacted Bill Estabrooke's office. He is the new provincial minister responsible for the Tar Ponds. My intent was to set up a meeting between him and the residents of the North End of Sydney who have legitimate concerns about air quality from the Tar Ponds "clean-up." Their concerns haven't been addressed by the Tar Ponds Agency and I felt the minister should be aware of this. Unfortunately, around this time, the minister's wife passed away and we couldn't meet with him. His assistant contacted Gary Campbell, who is the provincial rep on the tar ponds project and told him to set up a meeting with the residents. Gary called me and we agreed to set up a meeting.

The situation gets progressively bizarre and unbelievable from this point on. I assure you, it is all true! The residents wanted to meet in July because the work is beginning in October. They feel they have very little time to get their message across. Gary said that he was going on vacation and couldn't meet till August. I convinced the residents to wait till then and asked Gary when he would be returning. He said August 10 or 11. So, we set up the meeting for August 11 at 7 pm at the library. He was going to come and bring air monitoring specialists with him to address their concerns. So, the residents met with me and we developed the questions. A few short days later, I received a call from Gary. He wanted to meet with me because he was concerned about the meeting. I agreed to meet with him the next day.

I arrived at his office and he said he was concerned about who would be at the meeting and what questions would be asked. I told him that we would have questions prepared. We would record the meeting. We would give the agency folks a written copy of the questions. We wanted verbal responses at the meeting and written responses afterwards. He agreed to all this. Then I said that we might invite the press. He said that if the press was invited, then the communications folks from the agency would have to be there. I told him that we wanted only scientists and experts who could answer the questions. We didn't want communications people there and I agreed not to invite the press and he agreed to only invite experts. I also agreed that a certain environmentalist wouldn't be invited. I went out of my way to ensure that both sides would have the proper circumstances to have a productive meeting and hopefully the residents would finally get satisfactory answers. He then asked me for the questions in advance. I said I would ask the group for them.

After the meeting with Gary, I called the group and told them the demands. They weren't happy but I convinced them to provide the questions up front. They agreed but only if the agency would provide the written responses up front as well. On July 28, I sent the questions to Gary. There were 6 pages of questions. I can post them if people would like to see them. Anyway, here is the message I sent him on July 28th...

"Hello Gary. I've received the questions from the residents and I've attached them here. They have requested that the written responses be sent to them before the meeting on August 11 so that they have time to review them. I think this is a good idea as it will give more focus to the discussion. Please let me know when you will be able to provide these responses for them. Thanks. Take care."

On July 30, I received this response...

"Wayne - I had two Board meetings to get ready for yesterday, so I am just now getting to the questions. Firstly, I didn't think I would be dealing with 6 pages of questions - several of which (relocation, compensation, psychological issues, etc.) are not within my mandate to address.
We will provide responses to the questions relating to air emission issues, but I am on vacation next week, and can't commit to a firm date when I will get the answers to you."

I was in Northern Ontario when he sent the response. I responded when I arrived home on Friday August 7...

"Hello Gary. The questions are all concerns which the residents have. If you can`t personally answer them, it would be greatly appreciated that you ask the appropriate folks within the agency to provide answers for them as soon as you can. That said, if you can even get the answers to the air monitoring questions before the meeting, that would be great. I really appreciate anything you can provide the residents. The Tar Ponds Agency, as a government agency, has to be accountable to these people as citizens and must be open and transparent about everything, especially when it concerns the health of the people. I trust that you will make every effort to obtain the appropriate information from the experts to address these concerns. I also trust that if there is a potential health risk, the agency will make every effort to put the health of the people before the budget and timeline of the project. Thanks again. Looking forward to the responses and the meeting. Take care."

It seemed pretty clear to me that the meeting was still scheduled and that I gave him every freedom to answer the questions he could at the meeting and provide the other answers at a future date. The meeting day was today. I wasn't going to call anyone but at 3 pm, I decided I would call Gary and remind him. I called and left a message on his voice mail. Then I went out to another meeting. At 4:27, I was still out and Marcie received a call from Gary. He told her that he wouldn't be coming to the meeting and no one from the Tar Ponds Agency would be attending. I was shocked and enraged. The meeting was 2 and a half hours away and I was only now finding this out. 400 flyers had gone out to North End residents inviting them to come to this meeting and have their concerns addressed. Gary had agreed to this over a month ago and we had rearranged the meeting around his schedule and gone out of our way to accommodate his demands. When I got the message, I called him immediately and left a voice mail expressing my disappointment. He called me at 6 and told me that he had said in his email that he wouldn't be there. I pulled up his email and read it to him. It is the one I included above. No where does it say that he won't be attending or that he wants to reschedule the meeting. He also said that he couldn't answer all the questions and he was concerned about legal implications of meeting with people since a number of residents have a lawsuit filed against the agency. I gave him an earful about how he agreed to meet with them and bring the experts. He didn't have to answer all the questions. The experts could do that. I also reminded him that we rescheduled for him already and that this was an issue affecting people's health and could be a question of life and death.

This agency is a government agency. We, the taxpayers, pay for all of this. They must be accountable to us. It seems to me that the people most at risk, the residents of the North End, are the ones with the least input. They are being ignored and cast aside. Gary Campbell's behaviour was disrespectful and disgusting. He should be held accountable for not meeting with these concerned residents. From my dealings with the Tar Ponds Agency over the last month or so, I have become very concerned about this whole project. I don't trust the agency. They have been caught in lies. They have refused to answer simple questions. Now they have "stood up" an entire group of citizens to whom they are supposed to be accountable.

I went to the meeting. There were a couple of dozen residents there from the North End. They were extremely disappointed that the agency didn't show up. They feel like their voices aren't important. They feel like they have no where to turn. They feel like no government officials will stand up for them. The more I get into this morass, the more I tend to agree with them. I'm still waiting for the answer to my initial question. It's such a simple question, "How can the air be contaminated on one side of Intercolonial Street and not on the other?" I'm also hoping that the people of Sydney will stand up to support these residents and demand that there be accountability on this project. This isn't just a question of the health of those residents on Intercolonial. It is also a question of the health and strength of our community as a whole. If one part is suffering, the whole is suffering.

Most Recent Updates on The Tar Ponds Saga...

Facebook entry by Wayne MacKay

Thursday, Aug. 13 - 12:29pm

Wednesday was a surreal day for me. It all started Tuesday afternoon. I've told that story already. However, I don't know if I mentioned that I made one phone call after receiving the word from Gary Campbell that he and no one from the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency would be showing up to the meeting he had initiated with the residents of the North End. The phone call was to Bill Estabrooks' office. He is the provincial minister responsible for the Tar Ponds. It was after office hours so I left a detailed message on his voice mail. I explained everything that happened and asked that he call me back ASAP. I stated that he should hear the residents concerns. They are important concerns and they have not been listened to - as was very obvious after Tuesday's meeting debacle.

On Wednesday afternoon, I still not received a response from the minister's office. So I called again and spoke to an assistant there. I said who I was and why I was calling and asked to speak to Bill. I was told that he was "in a meeting." I repeated that he should call me right away to hear what had happened and I again suggested that he meet with the residents to hear their concerns. This was before I ever went to the press with anything. His office had every opportunity to call me back and hear the story from the perspective of these concerned residents.

Now, a government official is elected to represent the people. So, if a person or group of people want to speak to an elected official about their concerns, they should be able to do this. It's Thursday afternoon now as I write this and still no call from the minister's office. The NDP ran on a platform of good leadership and accountability. They convinced me they were different. Now would be a great time to show it!

So, I went to the CBC studio on Wednesday at 4 to be interviewed on Mainstreet. Before my interview, they aired Gary Campbell's responses to being questioned about not showing up for the meeting. There were many false claims in his responses and he stumbled over his words. He was also directly asked about the air on Intercolonial Street and again there wasn't a satisfactory answer given. My blood was boiling. Not because he had broken an agreement with me but because he was showing again first hand the way these powerless residents have been treated by government officials when it comes to this so-called clean-up. Immediately before I went on air, Wendy read a statement from the minister's office. They said, "There was no meeting." I almost hit the floor. I couldn't believe my ears. This meeting had grown out of a conversation with the minister's office. Someone in their office had told Gary Campbell to make initial contact with me. During that contact, Gary set up the meeting. Now, the minister's office was making a completely false claim publically without ever talking to me, returning my phone calls or speaking to anyone in the North End of Sydney about this. Wendy asked me how I felt and I responded that after hearing the minister's comment I felt like I wasted my time running in an election to help put this government in power.

Now, I'm sure I offended many of my NDP friends and I apologize if I did. But, if we tell people we are different, we have to act differently. Otherwise, we are no better than the other parties. It is no excuse to say we haven't been in power long enough and need to be given time to adjust. That may be so, but how long do you have to be in power to know that you are accountable to the people and work for them and that you should get as much information as you can before you make such a statement. The NDP government was never under fire here but they brought it upon themselves. All they had to do was say, "We're not sure what happened but we're going to look into it. We're going to talk to these residents to hear their side." Instead, they chose to only speak to Gary Campbell, whom they do not work for and who can meet with minister anytime! I don't hold the good people in the party responsible. Folks, like Gordie Gosse and others, are great MLAs who work very hard on behalf of their residents and stand up for what is right. This isn't Gordie's problem. This is Bill Estabrooks' problem. He is the minister responsible for the Tar Ponds. And there is an easy solution. All he has to do is pick up the phone, call me and arrange a meeting with these residents. If this government is truly different, he will do this because it is the right thing to do. If he does this, then I will be very happy with the government and will have renewed faith that we indeed have something better in the NDP. If he doesn't, then I will be the newest addition to the growing list of undecided voters. Actually, I will still vote for Gordie Gosse because he is a great representative, but my vote will be for him, not for the NDP.

Call me Bill so we can make this right...