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Crofton Forum Bogged Down |
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By Lexi Bainas, Citizen Staff
July 27, 2005
Members of the Crofton Community Advisory Forum spent an unproductive
evening last month, taking an hour to decide to form a sub-committee
before adjourning.
The group, four or five people short of full complement and with six
members of the public in attendance, spent so much time wrangling over
the wording of a motion to set up a sub-committee that the meeting had
no time for such agenda subjects as NorskeCanada's results from ambient
air monitoring stations and its 2005 plans for odour reduction, even
though the equipment was set up for a presentation.
The meetings must be finished not long after 9 p.m. to allow the
Saltspring Island committee members to catch the last ferry home.
Chair Jon Lefebure said he hopes the odour reduction strategy can be presented at the next meeting Sept. 13.
Several members expressed frustration with the way the forum is operating.
Environmentalist Patti Bauer wanted a sub-committee to re-evaluate the
information gathered in a study of mill emissions last year by Jacques
Whitford. It has already undergone two 'peer reviews' but Bauer said a
new study is needed and NorskeCanada should fund it.
Mill worker representative Joe Allan said "talk in the lunchroom is
that we've got to get less studies from this table and get more into
the nuts and bolts with recommended action."
Allan said it's beginning to look as if the group could "sit around for
ever and ever" picking at the pieces of the Jacques Whitford study.
Carol Donnelly, who lives in Crofton, said she's met cynicism from
fellow residents. "We're losing the public. People are fed up.
They're not going to find any credibility in this group any more.
People are really confused about what's going on. I came here wanting
to do something, but we keep meeting and meeting and meeting and
talking and talking and there's nothing happening."
Lefebure, Mayor of North Cowichan, said it would be "contradictory" to
ask NorskeCanada to fund another study when many complaints about the
first one stem from the fact that the company funded it.
Others pointed out the forum is in no position to order NorskeCanada to fund a study.
Lefebure said the Jacques Whitford study "pointed out some areas of
concern" and suggested action could be taken on these rather than
pushing aside everything in that study.
"It's callous to reject that out of hand," he said.
Eventually the group decided to form a sub-committee and another one,
at the behest of Duncan Coun. Jenny Farkas, to look at such subjects as
pollution prevention.
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