A Commentary by Doug Draper
We often hear a great deal of complaining these days about government and how poorly it is working. These complaints and the anger that so often propels them provide grist for neo- conservatives and libertarians in our midst to say lets gut government or get rid of it all together.
Image courtesy of Niagara Region.
Yet there are successes – some of which we take for granted – and in Niagara, Ontario one of the very best is the regional government’s recycling program.
Thanks to that program and thanks to residents across Niagara who have participated by making use of Blue and Grey boxes for recycling plastics, metal and paper and the like, and those Green bins for compostable organics, we are keeping almost half of the waste we generate in our homes and businesses out of landfill sites – a fantastic achievement given that a mere three decades ago, many skeptics in and outside of government believed most of us would not go to the trouble to recycle.
According to a recent newsletter the regional government circulated to our doors called ‘Greenscene’, the amount of waste we recycled in 2011 jumped 14 per cent over the previous year. That is pretty amazing, when you thing about it.
Instead of doing what we so simply did 30 or so years ago and took every empty can, newspaper and other recyclables and throw them in garbage cans enroute to the town or city “dump, we are now recycling close to half the waste we are generating in our homes. As a result, the regional government expects to make somewhere close to $12 million in revenue this past year from the wastes recycled and sold to industries using it in new products. All of that helps to keep the cost of municipal waste management down. That’s right! Here is a government service that is actually now generating money and keeping the cost of that service down.
This is a true success story, and it could not have happened if local municipalities in this Niagara region of Ontario did not finally agree, in the 1990s, to turn the responsibility for managing household and non-hazardous business waste to the regional government. It was an agreement that did not come easy. There was the typical opposition from the voices of parochialism in Niagara – the local politicians and so forth – that did not want the region taking over this service.
Yet if it hadn’t taken over this service, we would not have the recycling program we do today, nor would we be able to go on managing what are left of our landfill sites in this region without potentially spending tens-of-millions of dollars on new ones. Without the pooling of tax resources through the region, there are many residents – especially those in smaller municipalities – who would never enjoy the level of waste management services, including the opportunity to recycle their wastes that they do today.
That is what regionalism or amalgamation, if you want to call it that, is all about when it comes to critical services like waste management, policing . It is just too bad that regional councillors today seem so afraid to apply that same principle to things like economic development (where we have at least half a dozen local economic development corporations at work) and public transit.
It is almost pathetic to watch the regional council when it comes to issues like transit and economic development. They seem to know, at some level, that Niagara would benefit from a regon-wide transit system, but they are afraid to do it because it might offend local transit services. They also seem to know that Niagara might benefit from one economic development group or one greater Niagara chamber of commerce that might speak to people who may want to visit our region or do business in it. But then so many of them, once again, put on their little parochial hats and want to defend the local bodies that do this stuff.
At the end of the day, it should not be about the little parochial bodies that want to keep their commerce office or local transit company open. It should be about the greater interest of Niagara. And if we have politicians on the regional council who don’t give a shit about Niagara, they should be dumped from that council. What we’ve got are three more years of councilors that care more about their little fiefdoms than of Niagara as a whole. I hope I’m still around to name these narrow-minded, to-parochial-minded fools that ought to be dumped out.
When are we ever going to get into supporting one great Niagara?
(Share your views below. Remember that Niagara At Large on posts comments by people who dare to share their real name.)
Niagara At Large 
Oh, I know. Re recycling. I expect some vilification from this email. So be it. However, to set the record absolutley straight, my first endeavours with community activism was with Pollution Probe Niagara. Most of you have never heard of it, I expect. Be that as it may, we volunteers, under what was then known as a LIP grant (Local Initiative Programme) began the First ever recyling effort in the Region, using our private garages to collect and sort bottles, and then to the Oakdale Avenue ‘barn’ as the place we took bottles to, in the, yes, 1970’s. Many of us went to city council or various schools and talked about the three R’s. Early days, I admit.
We actually hired young students to man the plant on Oakdale, and take the bottles to Mr. Drake, in the North end of the city, wherein he recycled them through a Mr. Fiore in Niagara Falls. First steps. Faltering. I have pictures of me and my cohorts pressuring then mayor Joe Reid to get on board. Took years. Years. Finally, the city decided, well, maybe we were on to something…. and so it began.
I am proud of where Niagara stands on this issue.
If you were there, please feel free to comment. I know who was there, and who not, so, watch what you say. Gail Benjafield
LikeLike
In Fort Erie, Arc Industries a none profit group employing challenged young people to make buttons and other work such as silk screening, took on the unenviable job of collecting newspapers, in the Fort Erie area, they took the recycling of newspapers into a viable source of revenue, that was back in the 1980s Many people scoffed at their baby steps but it started a habit that continues to this day, Niagara Region takes in materials from other Municipalities and recycles their materials as well, I was at the Regions recent budget meeting and was told that this was a great money maker and contributes to lowering our costs., Well done Niagarans !!!!!
LikeLike
We could achieve many of the same ends by reducing Regional Government to a Service or Utilities Board – and allow them to continue provision of cross-border shared services while ridding ourselves of the significant duplication of departments and politicos that have created that bloated behemoth in Thorold.
Small municipalities sharing services where necessary and funding them on an as used, or per capita basis works just as well as a model as does our current Regional approach.
LikeLike
The first part of my comments relate to economic development. A very good case can be made for a regional approach. It really doesn’t matter which lower tier municipality lands a new business, we all benefit. Our workforce is mobile so people will cross the region to where there is work. Lower tiers covet business because it adds to its industrial/commercial tax base and relieves the ever increasing burdens on the residential tax base.
This crazy matrix of thirteen municipalities (including the region) competing for business development sends the wrong message entirely. A mechanism, whereby the net benefit of a regional commercial/industrial tax base being distributed proportionally among the 12 lower municipalities could alleviate this problem.
Having said that, I also have reservations about amalgamation because as a resident of Port Colborne there is a legitimate concern about the dominance of larger municipalities, particularly, St. Catharines. Look at he new St. Catharines Hospital that started as a regional cancer treatment centre fiasco and has turned south Niagara into an unequal partner in healthcare.
Lastly, let me say, I am a conservative, I do believe in smaller, efficient, fiscally responsible and accountable government. If my epitaph is to be the pejorative neo-con/libertarian so be it, but i don’t have to like it.
LikeLike
As Gail knows all too well, I was not there. I was however at all of the public meetings held by the region to shape its future waste management policies and directions.
A Few years back, realizing that Niagara would soon run out of landfill sites and space, they started looking into different strategies to deal with the problem. That included the possibility of establishing an energy from waste program. In other words, building a waste incinerator for non-diverted waste. That plan then evolved further to include the possible partnership with Hamilton.
Now, truth be known, I wasn’t that vocal in my opposition to an incinerator from the pollution and toxic spewing angle. I left that up to Gracia Janes and John Bacher. But I did publicly harp on the concern that having an incinerator would make it fundamentally harder to undertake any zero waste programs, or reach any high levels of diversion. Fortunately, for other controversial reasons, the Niagara-Hamilton Waste program was shelved. More unfortunately, the Region didn’t adopt a zero waste program internally or publicly. Be then neither was it being all that successful in breaking through a 45% diversion rate.
More recently, to basically approve the Region’s latest public relations and advertising campaigns, focus groups were held in which I participated, scored a few points there and apparently opened a few eyes.
Wish I could take some of the credit for the 14% jump reported by Doug, but I can’t, so I won’t. I think it has more to do with the general awareness of the benefits of recycling and reusing, and maybe due to these tough economic times, reduced consumption. And I think, it has to do with ‘sustainability’ finally taking hold in the public’s mind.
(Oh! by the way Gail and the others, Thanks for your earlier accomplishments.)
LikeLike
Now if they could just clean up the neighbourhood after a windy garbage day
LikeLike
Have your garbage out by 7 am and wait till late afternoon to have it picked up if there is any left in the boxes.
LikeLike
Can’t resist. Sunday mornings I walk downtown for a an hour or more, with friends. The disgusting trash is unbelievable. Yes, the city has cleaners and we often wave at them as they sweep up. One of us carries a bag for the bottle or beer can returns; another just throws things into the nearest trash can (usually adjacent to the very trash and recylilng bins put out by the city, and utterly ignored, for the most part. These are young revellers, most certainy, but no one has taught them the three R’s, make that four, including ones Respect for your city, and environment. End of rant.
LikeLike
Beginning of rant. A lot of old revellers/non-revellers do the same thing.
LikeLike