59 Carden St.

Will history repeat itself?

Posted by Magda
There was a lot of talk in court today about the city's extensive efforts to deal with odours from its compost plant -- efforts that, by pleading guilty, the city admitted failed.

Here's a rundown of how the city tried to deal with odours, as presented in court today.

• In April 1997, the Ministry of the Environment warned the city about the potential its plant could be smelly.
• The city commissioned at least seven studies -- worth well over $600,000 -- to understand how to deal with odours.
• The city gathered a team of experts -- engineers, city staff and air quality specialists -- to help them manage odours.
• In October of 2003, the city applied for permission to put on a fifth biofilter to reduce smells. They got the approval, but never put in the filter.
• Air filtration material was replaced in 2004.
• In 2005, operations procedures at the plant were updated.
• In 2006, operations were reorganized with a focus on governance. A former ministry investigator was hired to ensure things went smoothly in waste management.

Justice of the peace Robert Gay, who heard the joint submission from the city and the province today, summed it up in court this morning.

"The city undertook considerable expenditures and efforts to modifty the plant so it would not produce odours. Despite these efforts, we still had a number of releases of noxious odours. . . . The facility has been closed for some years, and therefore it will not be possible to reoffend," Gay said in court.

Except that the city is working to reopen the plant. And given that so much effort and money was put into a failed attempt to prevent odours, there's always the chance history could repeat itself.

A different point of view

Posted by Magda
This morning, the province fined the city $40,000 for one charge of releasing odour from the compost plant. The other seven charges -- plus two against a former staffer -- were dropped.

In a lot of ways, this should allow the city to breathe a sigh of relief. The charges were hanging over city heads for more than a year, taking up valuable time that should be spent on figuring out how to keep our compostables out of landfill.

But it's hardly cause for celebration. The fact is that the city pled guilty to releasing odour, and was fined for that. It also admitted it did commit many of the offences outlined in the other charges, which were dropped.

That's why I was surprised to see the city press release with the headline "Ministry of the Environment withdraws seven of eight charges related to City's compost facility." While that's true, the bigger deal, in my eyes, is that the city was fined on the eighth charge -- something that is mentioned, but a bit further into the city press release.  

No answers, big price tag

Posted by Laura

Following the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference this summer, I wrote a story about what our councillors got up to while there were there. It was interesting stuff – meetings with ministers and their representatives. I learned that Guelph was hoping to get some more money for its fire department and cultural initiatives.

There wasn’t a story after the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in June. I wish there was.

It turns out there was quite a ruckus at that conference after at least two Guelph councillors handed out flyers asking why the former federation president, Councillor Gloria Kovach, had been deposed. There were 2,000 members in attendance. And they wanted answers. FCM President Gord Steeves, who took over Kovach’s post, told delegates they would get their answer as soon as the legalities were resolved.

Then, in an even more surprising twist: Kovach was nominated from the floor to run against a Kitchener councillor for the vice-president at large position. Had she not been given the boot before the end of her term, she would have automatically received the spot. Her title would have been past president.

So Gloria stood in front of the assembly, said her thanks and recited her accomplishments. Then the members voted.

She didn’t win. But, it sure sounds like a good fight. Too bad no one bothered to report back to council about the happenings. No one even mentioned all this drama ultimately came at a cost of $19,000. That’s what the tab came to after seven councillors and four city staffers attended the Calgary conference.

Back in court

Posted by Laura

The city’s back in court today for a pre-trial on charges related to alleged odours coming from the wet plant. Magda will at the courthouse, patiently waiting to see whether there will be a settlement or a trial date set. The EPA charges were laid against the city more than a year ago, so here’s hoping some progress is made. I know there are a lot of people watching this case closely. We’ll keep you up to date. Stay tuned.

Oops

Posted by Magda
I talked to the City of Toronto just now regarding their proposed tax on bottled water. Stuart Green at the mayor's office said parts of the National Post story I linked to earlier today is incorrect -- the mayor isn't endorsing a tax on bottled water, but rather is asking for a discussion on it on behalf of a councillor who is endorsing it.

It also turns out the reason Toronto might be able to levy that tax is because of a special City of Toronto Act which allows it to levy extra taxes, including the controversial land transfer and vehicle registration taxes that were passed recently.

What it comes down to is that the City of Guelph wouldn't be able to levy a similar tax. And Green says it'd be hard for Toronto, too, because collecting tax at potentally thousands of points of sale across the city is near impossible.

So, don't watch for this story in the Mercury tomorrow.

No questions

Posted by Magda
At a special meeting last month, city councillors listened to presentations from organics processors with suggestions on how they would deal with Guelph's compostables.
At the time, no questions were permitted. The mayor explained that was to give all presenters an opportunity to answer all questions. So, the plan was to collect questions after the meeting and send them to all presenters to give everyone a chance to answer. There was a bit of bluster about this, because some observers argued it wasn't fair not have the questions aired in public.
We figured we'd find out what the questions were and give them some air in this medium. But city staff said yesterday that to date, they hadn't received any questions from councillors.
We'll check back with them in a bit to find out whether the questions have started coming in.

Geopolitical echoes in the boardroom

Posted by Magda
When my Grade 10 history teacher told us Canada would need a bigger military to protect its freshwater reserves, we thought he was a little crazy.

But local awareness of and battles over our water make me think maybe he wasn't so far off.

I've noticed before that how councillors remain fuelled during meetings seems to be part of their political image. There are those who come with their own ceramic cups that they presumably fill up at city hall taps. The CAO has a Guelph-issue reusable water bottle with a label that emphasizes it's got Guelph tap water inside. And some councillors bring in disposable Nestle water bottles.

But any significance to those choices remained unspoken until yesterday at a meeting of the committee picking the technology for Guelph's new composting plant. Someone pulled out a handful of Nestle water bottles from the fridge and put them on the table, saying "Don't look at the label." One committee member noisily -- and perhaps pointedly -- pulled off the label before drinking from the bottle. And one member stuck with the pickle-jar of tap water she kept under her chair.

As the local battle against Nestle's water-taking in Aberfoyle continues, Toronto is proposing a tax on bottled water. I'll be looking into local reaction to that today. (Later: Please note that the office of Toronto Mayor David Miller is saying parts of this National Post story I've linked to are incorrect. See my explanation from later in the day.)

You can't please everyone

Posted by Laura

Shortly after council ended last night, we received a call in the newsroom from a man frustrated with city hall's new electronic voting system. The caller wanted to know why councillors had suddenly abandoned the tried-and-true method of voting with a show of hands. He said he couldn't make out the voting results projected on the screen. Not even a eagle could see it, he told my colleague.

While most people, including the Guelph Civic League's president Annie O'Donoghue, applaud the move to a more open system, this man's concerns just go to show that high tech still has its problems.

That'll be $397.20

Posted by Magda
I've heard stories about newspapers being asked for astronomical amounts of money in response to a freedom of information request.

But it hadn't ever happened to me.

Until today.

I wrote a story last month about the city and county's disagreement regarding how much each should pay for Wellington Terrace, a seniors home. (The issue comes down to whether the city should pitch in for costs of building a new home, even though it's owned by the county.)

Today, I got a notice back that the documents had been found. With it came a price breakdown.

36 photocopies at 20 cents each = $7.20
Search and preparation of documents, at $7.50 for each 15 minutes (or $30 an hour) = $390
Total: $397.20

I called the city, thinking there was a typo in there somewhere. After all, it comes to a search time of 13 hours for those 36 pages.

But it turns out some of the documents are emails written by former staff members, which were stored on tape and had to be dug out.

I was told I could appeal the fee. I haven't yet decided how to proceed.

No answers on timing

Posted by Magda
So we haven't found out -- and perhaps never will -- why the Federation of Canadian Municipalities decided this week to state Guelph councillor Gloria Kovach's behaviour was not one of the reasons they bounced her as their president last March.

Kovach was vague in today's story, saying about that timing only that "I really can't speak to that. I did sign a confidentiality agreement."

Another one of Guelph's growing list of mysteries.