Minden Hills council has given the go-ahead to talk to community members in the lead-up to doing a strategic plan.

CAO Cynthia Fletcher asked council Aug. 8 to allow staff to issue a request for proposals (RFP), looking for a facilitator to lead a community engagement project. She said the township could use money already set aside for a strategic plan. She originally sought approval July 25, but council wanted more information, specifically around the apparent staged approach, since usually one firm does community engagement as part of a strategic plan.

Fletcher told council last week, “the intent of the recommendation is not to deviate away from developing a strategic/priority plan, but to initiate the necessary community engagement. Having the information from the community engagement phase may help shape the requirements to develop the township’s long-range guiding plan.”

Council had already set aside $50,000 for a strategic plan. However, Fletcher said with turnover in senior leadership positions, the work had not started and money remains in the budget.

Upon review, she added “staff identified a critical need to engage with our community to ensure any future plan reflects collective priorities and needs. Without this first phase. we will be missing a key component in developing a longer-range priority plan that meets Minden Hills’ priorities.”

These plans usually look five to 10 years out and guide decision-making. Fletcher added they help with community building, where to invest resources, and with annual business plans.

“Minden Hills is a terrific township with many assets, positive attributes, rich history and diverse expertise. We need to establish better connections with, and between, these assets to build up and highlight our community,” Fletcher said.

“The intention is to seek an experienced and dynamic facilitator, who will develop and implement a comprehensive engagement project to capture input from a broad, representative sample of community members, staff and council members.” She said community members include businesses, the development industry, residents, key stakeholder groups, and partner organizations.

The CAO believes the municipality wants to clarify what matters most to people, determine Minden Hills’ assets/attributes, identify ways to build better connections, enhance community spirit, and develop strategies to improve engagement within the community.

“Who we are today, where we want to go? What we want to accomplish? Create a draft vision for the community and identify potential hurdles to achieving that vision and strategies to overcome.”

She said following community engagement, the facilitator will identify attributes of Minden Hills that may be used to establish the community identity or “wow factor.” She added the facilitator will work with staff to develop recommendations for council consideration, which will form the foundation for the next phase in developing a plan.

She suggested spending $20,000 for phase one.

Coun. Ivan Ingram and Tammy McKelvey said they would have preferred staff put out an RFP for a strategic plan, with community engagement being part of it. McKelvey was worried seasonal residents would be gone by the time the talking began. Fletcher said they would want a firm that could reach people who cannot attend in-person.

Coun. Pam Sayne preferred community engagement first, to give the township direction. She added there are ways to reach seasonal people, and after a busy summer season is a good time to get feedback from the business community.

“We have to start today and try to get the community engagement going.”

She said the same firm could follow the plan through, or there could be other options. Mayor Bob Carter said doing it in steps made a lot of sense. Deputy mayor Lisa Schell also felt council should support the CAO in trying the new approach.

Fletcher said, “we need to stop talking about doing a strategic plan, we need to show some action and initiative on this.”

One of the world’s leading voices against burning waste has warned Haliburton County council it would be making a mistake investing in “outdated” incinerator technology.

Dr. Paul Connett, a retired environmental chemistry professor and waste management consultant based in Canton, New York, spoke at an Environment Haliburton! webinar July 31 to advise the community against pursuing incineration for municipal garbage.

County council established a working group in May to investigate the potential merits. While warden Liz Danielsen said at last week’s meeting talks are in the very early stages, The Highlander has learned the topic will be discussed next month, with council meetings scheduled Sept. 11 and 25.

“Incineration is a lazy, uncreative solution. It’s the Rambo approach to waste management – you don’t like something, get out the flamethrower and zap it,” Connett said.

He’s been researching incinerators since 1985 and has visited communities in 69 countries to advocate against the machines. Connett estimates helping prevent around 300 incinerators from being built across North America over the past 30 years – only one has been built in the U.S. since 1997, while there are six in operation today in Canada.

Instead, he’s helped communities establish new ways to deal with waste. He believes the answer lies in adopting a zero-waste strategy and transitioning from a linear economy based on quick consumption and disposal of goods to a circular one that promotes organic recycling, such as composting, and reusing.

‘If incinerating wasn’t safe it wouldn’t be happening’

“We would need five planets if everyone consumed as much as the average North American,” Connett said, noting how most people in Canada and the U.S. typically generate 52 tonnes of garbage by their 75th birthday.

He suggested the County consider banning things such as single-use plastics as a starting point.

In speaking against incineration, Connett said the financial and environmental repercussions could be disastrous for the County. He said the Durham-York plant, in Clarington, Wednesday – Friday 10 AM – 5 PM Saturday 10 AM – 4 PM 23 Hops Dr. • 705-457-1919 mid SUMMER carried an initial $295 million cost when it was built in 2016 and annual operating costs north of $16 million. The facility processes about 140,000 tonnes of garbage per year. Connett estimated a similar build would run closer to $400 to $500 million today.

The dangers

While the Durham-York incinerator and others located in Brampton and soon-to-be Edmonton are promoted as clean and safe for the environment, Connett contends the opposite.

“Incineration produces a toxic ash that nobody wants. For every four tons of trash burned, about one ton of ash is created – bottom ash that gathers under the grate and fly ash by the boilers and air pollution control devices,” Connett said, noting the ash contains dangerous levels of toxic metals such as lead and cadmium.

He noted fly ash was particularly dangerous – saying many countries, such as Germany and Switzerland, treat it as hazardous waste, place the ash into nylon bags and store them in salt mines. “It’s the same way they handle low-level radioactive waste,” Connett said.

The Durham-York plant transports its fly ash to New York State, where it’s buried, Connett noted – showing that incinerators require some form of landfilling operation to safely operate, so shouldn’t be considered a replacement.

Connett said there are miniscule dioxins, furans, and nanoparticles produced during the burning process that can be harmful to people. He said a 2020 study completed by McGill University links air pollution nanoparticles to increased cases of brain cancer.

“Incinerators convert thousands of tons of solid waste into trillions of very tiny particles, which are difficult to capture and can carry the most toxic substances known to man into every tissue in the human body,” Connett said.

Durham plant ‘not perfect’

Linda Gasser and Wendy Bracken are community advocates residing in Durham Region. They say they’ve spent years questioning the Durham-York plant, which they claim has run into many expensive problems in the eight years it’s been operational.

Within 18 months of opening, Gasser claimed there had been three fires, an enforced three-month closure to repair corroded boiler tubes, and a situation where almost 14 times the acceptable levels of major dioxin and furan emissions were released into the public, causing another closure.

Bracken estimated 26 per cent of total mass burn at the Durham-York landfill is eventually transported to landfills. She said independent scientists conducting tests on nearby land in 2023 found the incinerator has had a negative impact on soil quality since opening.

Something needs to be done

Dysart et al deputy mayor Walt McKechnie has been a long-time proponent of incinerators. He led the charge for the County to explore options for bringing a plant to Haliburton County.

He said incinerators have been used for years in Europe, in places like Norway, Sweden, and Poland.

“In this day and age, if incinerating wasn’t safe, it wouldn’t be happening,” McKechnie told The Highlander this week.

He feels County townships are in a race against time to establish new waste management practices and policies before local landfills reach their capacity. There are 18 dump sites across the County, 12 of them landfills and six transfer stations. Estimated lifespan of the remaining landfills is between 15 and 90 years.

McKechnie believes in a made-in-Haliburton County solution, though stopped short of providing examples of how to bring a facility online, or how much it could cost.

“We have to come up with an alternative. We’ve been filling landfills here for 60, 70 years. When you think of the improvements we’ve made elsewhere in infrastructure, building codes, the way we look at septics – landfill operations have stagnated,” McKechnie said.

He added, “we’re at a point in Dysart where, relatively soon, everything is going to be a transfer station. Eventually, the whole County will be the same way. Trucking garbage down the highway for hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, it doesn’t make sense to continue down that path.

“I’m not stupid enough to think there’s going to be an incinerator in Haliburton tomorrow. Someday there could be. But we need to be thinking about this today so that our future community does not suffer.”