Fair’s fair – even in tax levies
In case you missed it, Mono in essence is willing to hand over HSW responsibilities only if the county also takes over its existing landfill site, which, as has been reported several times in recent years, has a leachate plume that, in general terms, has forced expansion of the site to comply with provincial regulations.
Realistically, the Mono dump should be shut down and rehabilitated even though under its existing licence it technically has remaining capacity. The Town can’t keep on buying additional land to keep the plume within its boundaries. This does not make any kind of environmental or ecological sense.
Mono councillors should be aware of the potential costs of closure. Previous councils had an opportunity to shed the Town of its dump a decade or so ago when the concept of restructuring Dufferin into one municipality was debated, and it appeared such a thing might have happened with Mono’s support.
Restructuring was first broached in the heavily debated 1970s Hardy report. Part of Mono’s opposition concerned the proposed handing over of the landfill site, which was then seen as a valuable asset.
Now it would divest itself of the site only if the entire county pays for the closure and cleanup, even though non-Mono residents have never been able to use it.
Worse. Orangeville, Shelburne and Grand Valley closed and rehabilitated their dumps without any support from Mono. Now their taxpayers would be asked to pay most of the cost of closing a dump they have never been allowed to use.
Currently, the tiny Township of East Luther Grand Valley has been budgeting yearly for closure of its dump near Luther Marsh. Its position is that while it would like the county to take over the cost, it wouldn’t let that stand in the way of a county-wide garbage stream takeover. We would urge Mono council to rethink its position in the interests of reality and fairness.
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