May 25, 2017
To whom it may concern,
Please find relevant information concerning environmental and health issues, for people living in Hornepayne, especially those adjacent to, or within close proximity of CN property.
The majority of the information on this site, comes from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), as a result of a Freedom of Information Request, made June 25th, 2016.
The material I received on or about April 4th, 2017 was a conglomeration crammed into one very large, PDF of two thousand three hundred and sixteen (2,316) pages of which five hundred (500) had no relevance to my request.
Some were blank pages others duplications, still others illegible, unintelligible, upside down and void of any order.
I have done my best to categorize, consolidate, title and index to make the material as comprehensive as possible.
I have not rearranged the material into chronological order and as such, it will suffice to demonstrate the confusing state it arrived in.
In some instances, the material is technical and requires professional interpretation. However, the majority is straightforward ,with few contradictions, which would impede the reader from forming a sustainable conclusion.
It seemed obvious to me upon a cursory examination of the material, that there must be a large volume of documentation missing. I list three (3) of the most supportive reasons why:
(1) Some materials are addressed to other parties involved, with no responses or acknowledgements included. In some cases, follow up is referred to.
(2) The number of manuals included in the material, would of necessity, have required exchanges of correspondence between the different parties, in order to compile and distribute them. However, little is found;
(3) One would expect as common sense would dictate, that due to the extent and degree of the pollution, coupled with the duration of time, that the parties have recognized the existence of the same and that substantially, more interaction between the Township, CN, and MOECC would have occurred. Hence, generating more documentation. Yet the Townships’ response dated August 4th, 2016 states, “The Corporation has researched its records and does not have any records in its care and control relating to this Freedom of Information (FoI) request,” a response that stretches their credibility, beyond rational limits.
For the time being, I leave the existence of additional correspondence for a conclusion, on the reader’s part, but add, if that conclusion is affirmative, it begs the question…whose priorities is the town representing, regarding this matter?
There can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable person, based on the evidence provided by the Ministry of the Environment, that there exists in the facts, a substantiated serious, migrating, pollution problem. It pertains to recognized, carcinogens over a large area, to a high degree of concentration, surrounded by occupied residences, in the community of Hornepayne.
I interject at this point, to offer the reader a brief before and after observation. I grew up in the Round House Road neighbourhood and in my pre-teen and teen years, I remember a lot of large poplar, pine and tamarack trees in that area of town. As the years went by, that slowly changed. What is left is no comparison to what I remember, the trees along the Jackfish River are diseased, stunted, most dying and it is no wonder why. I can remember lying in my bed on hot July nights with the windows open hoping for a little breeze and smelling CN’s diesel fuel going down the river, a common memory to many, I am sure.
The large estimates (see index) contained in the MOECC documents, will be no surprise to the long term residences, from or of that neighbourhood.
One of the several factors that disgusts me in particular, is the, “self-back patting,” of CN Environment Officer, Aaron Stadnyk, found in his email of August 13th, 2015 to MOECC Kirk Crosson (see pages 2 and 3). Here, he announces the procurement of a new boy on the block, one Arcadis, who’s going to put things right.
Included in that email, is his response to Mr. Crosson’s last site inspection in 2013. Considering the decades of apparent incompetence and a response two years after the fact, are we to applaud his decisive action and commend him for his timely response to MOECC’s inspection concerns?
I mean really, I had to pinch myself. The fact that they still do not have a handle on this situation, by their own admittance and the continuing silence of the Township, speaks volumes and is a damning indictment in itself.
I conclude without reservation, that the handling of the matter to date, is a disgrace…full failure to all parties involved, namely the Township, CN, MOECC, MNR and all MP’s and MPP’s past and present. If there is anything to applaud, it is their shared infamous achievement of minimizing public reaction, through lack of information and representation, for over fifty (50) years.
It is now and was always a primary responsibility of the mayor and council, to obtain and share information concerning any matter, which poses a health risk to its taxpayers and not the taxpayers’ responsibility to accept risk factors and property devaluation, in silence to accommodate CN’s bottom line and bonus incentives, to penny pinch and Mickey Mouse remedies.
My motive is simple solicitude for the community, the environment and the uncertain future for both, due in large part to apathy, ignorance, greed and incompetence of those entities who’s legal responsibility, it was to prevent and upon that failure to rectify, as the law requires the mess they made, in a timely manner, while informing and protecting the community at large.
I see litigation as the only corrective road forward (a Class action lawsuit).
This site will be updated as more material becomes available and it will…I assure you.
Yours sincerely,
George Collins.
Please find relevant information concerning environmental and health issues, for people living in Hornepayne, especially those adjacent to, or within close proximity of CN property. The majority of the information on this site, comes from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), as a result of a Freedom of Information Request, made June 25th, 2016. The material I received on or about April 4th, 2017 was a conglomeration crammed into one very large, PDF of two thousand three hundred and sixteen (2,316) pages of which five hundred (500) had no relevance to my request. Some were blank pages others duplications, still others illegible, unintelligible, upside down and void of any order. I have done my best to categorize, consolidate, title and index to make the material as comprehensive as possible.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at info@hpcnomissions.ca.