TOWN MEETING ON JANUARY 21, 2010.

About 125 residents gathered Thursday evening at Town Hall, to listen to presentations by Cindy Toth, Director of Environmental Policy and Rodney Northey, environmental lawyer retained by the Town of Oakville, on the proposed By-law to regulate Fine Particulate Matter in Oakville.

After the presentations a large number of residents asked questions or made comments during the Question and Answer session.

Members of the panel were amongst others Dr. Pengelli (expert in air quality and the effects on public health) and Dr. David Giovanni (expert in Fine Particulate Matter dispersal modelling).

The majority of residents were appreciative of the Town’s effort to do something about the air quality in Oakville and the ambient air we are breathing in.

It was stressed that this by-law is focussing on the Protection of Public Health from airborne Fine Particulate Matter. Technically there is no ‘safe’ level of FPM (as agreed upon by Federal, Provincial and other experts), hence this by-law does not specify a specific target level in ambient air or permitted standard for emitters.

A sample of the questions:

Q: Will this by-law have some teeth or will there be a lot of challenge.

A: Certainly intended to have teeth; too many teeth according to business representatives who met with the Town last Tuesday.

Q: Can the Province void this By-law?

A: Yes, they do have the power to do that, but the fact that they (Province) have not done anything to regulate the Fine Particulate Matter (which everyone – Provincial and Federal Governments have acknowledged as toxic), they do not have a lot of leg to stand on.

Q: How many major emitters do we have in Oakville at the moment?

A: Guesstimate is 30 to 40

Q: The By-law seems to focus on existing emitters. What about the newcomers?

A: The By-law requires newcomers to immediately comply with the regulatory/approval process.

Q: Do we know what the current air quality is in Oakville as opposed to what it was at the time of the Clarkson Airshed Study?

A: Both Halton Region and the Town are in the process of monitoring Air Quality. Data for 2009 is available in the Region, but it needs to be processed and controlled before it will be made public, which can take up to 6 months.

Mayor Burton took the floor at the end of the meeting. He explained that the By-law is going after the impact on Public Health, and is not a By-law against one particular ‘body’. It is dealing with existing pollution but will definitely be applied to newcomers as well. The Town is very well aware that the pollution is not only coming from businesses (1/3 is) and that there are many initiatives within the Town to reduce pollution from the other sources (Vehicular, Residential and Miscellaneous).

The Town is not out to ‘kill businesses’ and there may be financial assistance for companies to clean up their act regarding pollution.

The Mayor stressed that he and council would appreciate to get input from as many residents as possible. All the information on this proposed by-law is to be found on the Town Web-site (under the button Health Protection & Air Quality).

the deadline to submit your comments to Health Protection is the end of business on Monday, January 25th 2010.