Host Community Agreement no longer matters in incineration battle

Clarington council heard from environmental consultant Steven Rowe on Monday, March 7 - who was hired on to look at the impact of the Host Community Agreement on provincial approval of the proposed Clarington facility - and you can be forgiven if you haven't really heard anything since.

That's because it seems to be the final nail in the anti-incinerator coffin.

Even though the majority of residents and the majority of councillors are opposed to the incineration option - the number of at-bats is dwindling.

The whole point of looking at the Host Community Agreement was never to put pressure on the province. As Rowe made perfectly clear it probably matters not one fig to the Ministry of Environment whether there is a HCA or not. The minister typically decides environmental assessments based on the merits of the area being considered.

And with a nuclear plant to the east and St. Mary's Cement east of that nobody can seriously argue that the area is a pristine natural oasis.

The problem is that council's earlier move - which included a perceived threat to sue over the HCA - was met with overwhelming fire from Durham Region that wilted Clarington council's will. The Region called out Clarington and it turns out we had a poor hand.

If that was the best our councillors could come up with - it wasn't much.

The Region - and more importantly the current Regional Councillors on whom so many hopes were pinned - may now feel that the HCA is a done deal and Regional Councillors may now have lost their appetite to reopen the business case.

So the ill-fated legal manoever may have cost Clarington the fight.

Now some will say 'we had to do something!' But as the saying goes - when you're in a hole you have to stop digging and look for a ladder.

Unfortunately we kept digging rather than proposing a plan with some legs. And if anyone thinks for a moment the Region's lawyers were bluffing they should maybe put down the dice and remember they are playing with taxpayer dollars here - tens of millions of them.

So is the incinerator now a done deal?

It's a step closer to shovels in the ground - but can still be fought primarily on economic grounds as costs rise. The majority of Clarington's local and regional councillors remain opposed to the incinerator but the battle now rests with the Regional Councillors, outside of Clarington, who can re-open the business case.
Failing that it now looks like all that remains for Clarington Councillors is form a watchdog committee and observe matters from the sidelines.

But what we really need to see is people becoming the face of the movement - like at the March 5 protest in Courtice. Failing that then opposition will likely crumble.

Federal note: Clarington is now in the middle of a federal election - mark May 2 on your calendar and do your duty as a Canadian and vote.

In my next blog post I'm going to look at the Darlington New Nuclear Power Plant Project Joint Review Panel held in Courtice March 21 to April 8.