The Rural Voice, 1991-04, Page 78GREY
44610th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1 P9
519-364-3050
The Rural Voice is provided to all Grey
County Farmers by the GCFA.
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
ENVIRONMENTAL BILL OF RIGHTS: SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED?
Our provincial government is pres-
ently working on an "Environmental
Bill of Rights" (EBR) to be introduced
to parliament by May 6, 1991. The
purpose of an EBR is to state clearly and
explicitly that:
1. Citizens have a right to a healthy
environment.
2. The government has a duty to protect
the environment from degradation.
3. Individuals have the right to partici-
pate in environmental decisions.
4. An individual has the right to sue for
public nuisance in the civil courts if
environmental rights are violated.
While you realize that the EBR is
only under discussion, how do these
purposes square with the actions of
MOE in the recent past?
Let us look at an ever increasing
problem province wide as well as lo-
cally. Old tires. We all use tires, we
need them, and we pay for them. Boy do
we pay for them! First we pay the
manufacturers who should accept some
responsibility for their disposal after
their useful life as a tire is over. Since
manufacturers don't do that, parliament
made us pay again through the $5 tire tax
plus GST plus PST. That, however, did
not solve the problem, since the funds
generated are not being used for their
intended purpose, but go straight into
general revenue.
The dealer now puts an additional $5
plus GST plus PST on the tire he sells to
pay someone to take the old tire away.
This individual, if he cannot find a recy-
cler to take the tire, will find some irre-
sponsible landowner who will permit
him to dump the tires on the back 40
under the cover of night. This is nor-
mally discovered only after tens of thou-
sands of tires have been dumped and
some neighbours fearing for their life
and health, call MOE. Then our "guard-
ian of the environment" (MOE) gets into
the act, and without public involvement,
without environmental assessment,
without consideration for workable al-
ternatives, decrees that the tires must be
"encapsulated" and "entombed," or
some other word their spin doctors use
for buryittg them.
After the tires are buried, we can
finally look forward to a payback on all
the money we have invested. Usually
the burial site is on good farmland,
because other sites are too rocky or carry
hazard designations. This benefits
farmers in that the land is taken out of
production and will reduce the surplus
of food produced. Another potential
benefit is an undisturbed breeding and
nesting site for rats and other varmints,
which are an absolute essential to a
successful farming operation.
The real, hidden benefit, however, is
"downstream" (no pun intended).
When the ground water percolates and
flows through this buried treasure, it
leaves with a higher chemical content,
and surely this has to be a benefit.
However, I do not know if this "value
added water" is GST or PST taxable. It
is certain these benefits will increase
over the years as the tires give off even
more of their chemical composition as
they rot away. That again has benefits.
It keeps our health industries busy treat-
ing resulting cancer and other ailments,
and if a few farmers should meet their
demise before their time, it should not
cause too much concern, we have too
many farmers anyway.
Do we need an EBR? Not if it is
another paper tiger designed to get poli-
ticians off the hook. If it is a bill making
politicians and civil servants respon-
sible for their actions or inactions, as
well as private citizens and corpora-
tions, then it is long overdue.
Let us remember all these legislated
"rights" are worth nothing, unless we
are willing to accept our responsibili-
ties.
But there are solutions which do not
harm our environment. Government
grants are available for machinery to
recycle tires. If we had a central waste
management site in Grey and Bruce, an
environmentally friendly tire recycling
facility, as part of this site, could also be
of great financial benefit to the coun-
ties.0
submitted by Karl Braeker,
OFA regional director, Grey South
GCFA
DIRECTORS' MEETING
Thursday, April 25, 1991
Thursday, May 23, 1991
OMAF Boardroom, Markdale
8:00 p.m.
Members are welcome to attend
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74 THE RURAL VOICE