The Rural Voice, 1994-01, Page 26supportive, the government refuses to
budge in its official position that
there is no problem. Promises that
action is just around the corner have
been coming so often that Berendsen
doesn't believe them any more.
On March 12, 1993 he and his
lawyer were asked to put together a
proposal of what they felt was a fair
resolution to the problem. They put
together their requirements but never
had an official reply, Berendsen says,
just a back -door report that they were
asking too much.
Ken Knox, assistant deputy
minister of agriculture toured the
farm September 20, 1993 and,
according to Ireland who was there,
seemed visibly shaken by what he
had seen. His concern heightened
hopes that a resolution to the problem
might be just around the corner.
Signals to George and others said a
solution was at hand. But days turned
to weeks and weeks turned to months
and no action came. With that, in
October, Berendsen and his lawyer
Rick Lindgren, of the Canadian
Environmental Law Association,
decided there was no alternative_ but
legal action.
Why the government seems
on the verge of doing
something but then backs
off is a mystery to those close to the
case but one adviser suggested, off
the record, that a battle between the
three ministries involved, agriculture,
transportation and environment and
energy, could be the reason.
Transportation, with probably dozens
of asphalt dumps spread across the
province, has the largest stake in the
issue. Ministry officials have stayed
in the background on the issue,
refusing to admit there is any
problem with buried asphalt. Yet
under environmental legislation it's
an offence to dispose of asphalt as
fill. Berendsen has a letter from Ruth
Grier to a third party in which she
says only inert materials, not asphalt,
can be used as fill. The MOEE has
forced the city of Cambridge to
remove buried asphalt because it is
too hazardous. In this case, however,
it is the government that is
responsible for the dumping and the
story seems to be considerably
different.
Coming from Europe, where
crowded conditions made the care of
26 THE RURAL VOICE
Yorkshire
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Farm
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