PAGEj4, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1986,,WHIITBY FREE PRESS Published cvery Wcdnesday >~ whitby BILL MCOUAT by . B.M. Publishing ç/1 isII~alnd Photography Inc. FIzm1 lPhone 6Î1801 11 VALERIE COWEN u u ~~~~The Free Press Building., deten aae Voicofie CuntTow Mihae Ia Buges, Pbliher Maagig Eito31I Brock Street North, Second Class Mail Voie o te Cuny T wnMicae la BrgesPubiser M nagngEdior11.0. Box 290i, Whitby, Ont.> Registration No, 5351 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whithy residents. Hearings legisiation is inadequate The f Irst three days of the Environmental Assessment Board hearing Iinto Decom's proposai to build a pathologIcpI waste transfer station In Whitby were no doubt an eclucation for many of us. ln atteridance at the hearings aest week. In our view the most significant revelation of the week *had nothlng whatsoever to do with the Decom proposai tseif but with the legisiation under *whIch it Is being reviewed by the EAB. By ail ap- pearances . It would seem that the board's representatives at the hearIng, chairman Michael Jeffery anci,Mary Munro, have every Intention cf giving the proposai a thorough and even handed airing before they report back to the full board. However, we have some serious concerns about * whether they willi be able to hear ail the evidence thanks to certain peculiarities in the legIsiation governlng such hearIngs. There are, apparentiy, two different provincial acts under which proposais with potential en- vironmentalIimplications may be revIewed by the WASHINGTON - We did two "World Reports", Globa's 6:30 newscast, here on March 18 and 19 to dramnatize the meeting between Prime Minister Mulroney and President Reagan. The iast time i an- chored a Global newscast hére was ln the Spring of 1974, when the sky was faiiing on Richard Nixon. That was only my second visit to the American capital since leaving In 1965, after eight years ln the United States as a New York and then Washington correspondent for a Canadian newspaper. i hadn't been back since that Spring of Mr. Nixon's discon- tent, 50 lt's been aimost 12 years since i fine-tuned my Canadian inferiority com plex. It is always Instructive to rediscover the fact that ln Washington, Canada has about as much clout as Iowa. The Americans are always friendiy, pleased to see us, but appear taken aback, If unilke lowans, we behave as If we were 1independent. For the most part, the oniy Americans who know anything about us are the ones who have had their ankies bitten, congressmen and senators from states hurt by Canadian lumber or f lsh exports for example. The remaining Americans don't see Canadlans as an issue. They. suspect us of being a bit soft on communlsm, but they know that we tend to wind up on the same aide when t comes to Important wars. They know that we're not whinfing for aId and that we repay our blans, that most of us speak a recognizabie American diaiect, and that we're not steaiing their Jobs away wth iliegai, wet-back labour. We're not. un-American, really, which is what disquiets themn most about other foreigners, and 1 suppose that this is both good and bad for us. It's good in the sense they are not Ilkely to invade us. t's bad in the sense that once they have shaken hands with us and asked about the wife and the kids, they start thinking about somnething else. They dont reaiiy want to hear about the famlly, or what we did on our Summer hoiidays, or Acid rain. t's when their eyes giaze over that you begin to wish we weren't so friendly. board. One is the Envirotimental Protection Act and the other is the Environmental Assessment Act. As we understand It, the latter generally ap- plies In applications by government bodies whlle the former is usualiy reserved for applications by members of the private sector. Hence Decom's proposai Is being heard under the Enivironmentai Protection Act. As David Sims, the town's solicitor ln the proceedings, expiai ned It to usin an Interview iast week, questions about a proposais's fina ncilai viabiiity, possible alternatives and whether or flot there Is even a need for such a facility, may be heard under the Environmental Assessment Act. lnfact, under that act Mr. Sims said such questions play a principal role ln the hearings. However, under the Environmental Protection Act, these questions need not necessarily apply. In a written ruling on the matter by Ms. Munro and Mr. Jeffery last week, they concluded that, while 4q 0O(À EL lI"-iML± questions concerning the need for the facility may be considered, possible alternatives to the. proposai and Investigations of Decom's financial viability are beyond the board's jurlsdiction under the act. It would seem to us that these questions are very Important If one must make decisions that may have a lasting and Irreversible Impact on our environment. Unleas bodies such as the EAB are* ailowed access to ail the facts they cannot possIbly *be expected' to make accountable decisions. Whatever form the Environmental Assessment Board's final recommendation on the Decom proposai takes, there will necessarily be criticai questions left unanswered due to the inadequacies Inherent ln the Environmental Protection Act. This s flot the kind of legislation that iends Itseif to a genuine concern for the en- vi ron ment. JSTiN$ ~ LVJ We don't like too many neighbours.0. Jhadya' have near the Decom site? MMý"