Blog #3 - Revisiting the host community agreement

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Let's step back ourselves for a moment and consider Clarington council's decision to step back from a motion aimed at re-opening the host community agreement on the regional incinerator to be built in Clarington.

Make no mistake about it - a solid majority of this council still opposes incineration.

So why the lack of council support for this attempt to stop the incinerator?

Well for starters it smacked too much of sabre-rattling and nobody takes kindly to threats or perceived threats - nor should they.

Lawyers do what lawyers do - work within the legal system - but the region quite clearly laid out the potential massive costs - to Clarington - if developments continued down that path.

From the beginning the best way to fight the incinerator was to do three things:

First, immediately after the election this council should have made their voices heard loud and clear from the steps of the town hall. But we didn't hear a peep and in the interim events moved along, the deal got signed, life went on.

That was a missed opportunity.

The second step was to re-examine the host community agreement. The problem is the 2006-2010 Clarington council did a fine job handcuffing this council to the deal. Even if residents wanted out of it the region is well within its rights to simply say that at the time the deal was made Clarington was on board with it so they are bound to it.

A deal's a deal and I think most people understand that. But not all negotiations have to be held in the context of a lawsuit hanging over everyone's head. It got the region's defences up and wasted an opportunity for sensible discussion.

But all is not lost.

The third way still remains and it is the strongest - re-examining the business case.

Clarington needs to direct its three regional representatives - Mayor Adrian Foster, Ward 1 & 2 Regional Councillor Mary Novak and Ward 3 & 4 Regional Councillor Willie Woo - to ask regional council to re-open the business case one final time.

Many of the other Regional Councillors claimed they were opposed to the incinerator and many residents voted for them based on that platform.

Given the escalating costs of the agreement, given the seriousness of the opposition to the project and given the recomposition of regional council this just makes good sense.

Clarington still has an at-bat to go but this council really needs to come to grips with a strategy, make it clear to all and present a unified force.

Threats of a lawsuit won't make the incinerator go away and could complicate real efforts that could produce real results. At worst Clarington could be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars - think for a moment about the possibility of 10 per cent tax increases each year for the next ten years over this.

I bet the Mayor did.

That's the path this motion demanding the region look at the host community agreement - or else - seemed to be leading Clarington down.

One thing, however, is clear - members of this council need to start really listening to each other and quit the political grandstanding.

Let's see some real teamwork, some real consensus-building and some action that produces real results. Not sound bites over who is doing the most for the taxpayer.

In my next blog post I'll look at the Valentine's Day Clarington Council meeting on Feb. 14 and see what happened with Winter Wonderlearn in Courtice.