Alan Pickersgill - The View From Here

(July 29) - A couple of weeks ago, techno-freaks across Canada lined up overnight hoping to buy the latest overpriced cellphone. Although some Guelphites managed to get an iPhone, it's hard to say how many. They are sold only at Rogers Wireless stores. A call to the stores only told me there were some in stock on July 11, but none on July 18. They wouldn't say how many. A woman at the Stone Road Mall store told me Apple doesn't want that information divulged. Mystique needs mystery to work.

Two things are certain, though. All the people who bought an iPhone already had another cellphone. None of them are still using the old one. That's the way it is with electronic gadgetry, isn't it? It doesn't matter if it's a cellphone, a video game console or a computer. No sooner do you carry one out the front door than a better one is unloaded at the back of the store. There is probably no other industry where planned obsolescence is so consciously and deliberately designed into things.

There are some charities that happily take discarded cellphones. They refurbish them and either sell them to raise funds or donate them to women's shelters. Abused women should never be far away from a direct line to help. If you don't want your old cellphone, there are lots of people who do. Incredibly, a lot of phones still end up in the clear waste bag for shipment to a landfill somewhere. It's the same with old DVD players, video game consoles and computers. This stuff is generally classified as "waste electric and electronic equipment" or WEEE. It's also known as e-waste.

It shouldn't go to landfill, and it doesn't have to. Next Monday, Aug. 4, is John Galt Day. The city is opening the Waste Resource Innovation Centre for another one of their eco days. You can bring out any of your old electronic gadgetry. No televisions, toasters or coffee makers, but lots of the plug-and-play toys you've acquired over the years. Check the city's website to see exactly what you can drop off. It will all be properly taken apart and either reused, recycled or safely disposed. It is all a part of what we call Extended Consumer Responsibility. When you buy something, it is yours to use while it is good and to make sure it doesn't damage the environment when you don't want it anymore.

Of all the electronic waste out there, computers are the worst. The Basel Action Network is an organization dedicated to monitoring the international trade in toxic material. They estimate that a pile of 500 computers contains 717 kilograms of lead, 1.36 kilograms of cadmium, 863 grams of chromium and 287 grams of mercury. Many of the places that buy second hand electronic equipment end up reselling them for export. Most of it ends up at Guiyu in China or Bangalore in India. Stories of pollution and disease are horrendous. Four villages in China have been literally turned into toxic waste dumps. Their drinking water has to be trucked in from over 30 kilometres away.

Bill Shields, a supervisor in Guelph's solid waste resources department, assured me that none of the e-waste taken by the city leaves the country. It is sent to Renewed Computer Technology in St. Catharines. Do yourself a favour and look this company up on the Internet at www.rcto.ca. You'll be impressed at the work they do training young people in information technology programs and in providing computers for schools.

Next April, stores in Ontario will start charging "eco fees" on televisions and computers. It will be about $10 on a television and as much as $13 on computers. We started paying similar fees on paints and solvents at the beginning of July. They help finance municipal collection programs.

If these fees do what they are supposed to do, they will remind you that ownership lasts right through to the final disposition of the things you buy. You can send them to landfill, you can send them to China or you can take them to Dunlop Drive.

The latter option is the one that keeps the "responsibility" in Extended Consumer Responsibility. It helps you, it helps the city and it helps the planet.

(July 22) - All sales are final. That's the way it is with paint. It doesn't matter where you buy it. If you get too much, and have half a gallon of Yew Green left over, don't try returning it. No one who sells it wants it back.

Well over 10 per cent of all paint sold never touches a brush or a roller or a wall. It stays in the can on basement floors and garage shelves all over Guelph, indeed throughout Ontario and across Canada. It is, by far, the largest component of the household hazardous waste mountain. It makes putting out a house fire one of the most dangerous tasks undertaken by firefighters. This isn't because of the heat or the collapsing roofs. It is because of the smoke. The chemical soup of waste material stored in the home is a major cause of the workplace cancers they risk falling victim to.

You shouldn't keep it. You can't return it. You can never throw it out. So what can you do? Give it to the city. Load it into the trunk and drive it out to the Waste Resource Innovation Centre. That's the place we used to call the Wet-Dry. Still do, more often than not. Drop the paint off.

One day you'll be painting the kid's bedroom and who cares what colour it will be? It won't matter, because the little dear isn't going to like it anyway. Drive back out to Dunlop Drive and pick up some paint someone else left there. The city will charge you exactly what they paid you when you dropped off your old paint. Nothing.

This exchange program was reinstated at the beginning of the month, at about the same time as new "eco fees" started appearing on paint store sales invoices. An extra 10 cents a litre helps fund municipal recycling programs. Similar fees are charged on motor oil, solvents, antifreeze and other hazardous material.

The "eco fees" go to a group called Stewardship Ontario, which uses them to fund municipal collection depots. The paint used to be sent on a long journey, at the end of which it would be used as a fuel additive. Soon, it will go to Hotz Environmental Services in Hamilton. It will be blended and reprocessed as second grade paint.

It's not exactly extended producer responsibility (EPR), but it will do until the real thing comes along.

EPR was born in Germany about 15 years ago. At first, it required producers to take back and reuse, or recycle, the packaging in which they ship and sell their products. It has grown over the years to a requirement that manufacturers are responsible for the final disposal of the things they make. With EPR, when your Intrepid is about to give up the ghost, you don't limp it out to a scrap yard. You bring it back to Chrysler and they reuse some bits, recycle others and safely dispose of the rest.

EPR gives the research and development folk an incentive to design the product with an eye on its eventual disposition. They don't necessarily build things to last longer. In fact, they build them to last shorter. They don't want them sitting in landfills for the next 500 years. In 2006 an article in the Harvard Environmental Law Review called it "planning the funeral at the birth." An excellent definition of EPR.

If we had this in Ontario, the companies that make the paint would have to take it back for safe disposal. We don't have it, and they don't have to do it. What we have instead could be called Extended Consumer Responsibility. When you buy something, you agree to be accountable for its proper use and disposal.

Think about an apple, but not the computer type. You eat an Ida Red and put the core in the compost bin. Nothing goes to waste.

It gets more complicated with more complex products, but the principles remain the same.

In a couple of weeks, on John Galt Day, the city will take many of your old electronics off your hands. They are having another Eco Day on Dunlop Drive.

Next week we'll have a look at what happens when your Wii becomes WEEE.

(July 15) - They have no one to blame but themselves. Last week, the Wal-Mart development team came to Guelph city council and shot themselves in the foot. I was there to speak against the application, and I saw it happen. They wanted approval to expand their store by 65,000 square feet, and to add other retail stores across the road from Woodlawn Cemetery. Then they talked themselves right out of it.

Before cheering too loudly - or grieving too sorrowfully, depending on whose side you're on - word came out last Friday that the self-inflicted wounds were not fatal. Staff will get back into negotiations with the developer and council will have another look at it in the middle of September. We should still take a look at what happened last week.

The developers got on Vicki Beard's wrong side when they refused to harvest rainwater to irrigate the plants. They got under Mike Salisbury's skin when they fudged and fuddled over a second floor on buildings near the streets. Several councillors, including Ian Findlay and Leanne Piper, wanted reassurance that new buildings would meet environmental efficiency and design standards. They couldn't get it. The Wal-Mart Wallies wouldn't even consider a green roof.

This raised the question about holding the Wal-Mart developers to a higher standard than others. If council didn't ask the Great Canadian Superstore to meet higher environmental standards in the south end, should they ask Wal-Mart to meet them in the north?

The short answer is yes, they should. To do otherwise would be extremely unfair to future generations. If we missed an opportunity in the past, we have not given it up for ever and always. Just because we failed to score a goal early does not mean we concede the game.

What happened yesterday shouldn't become the fixed benchmark for all our tomorrows. All developers should be required to build to the highest standards in effect when the shovels hit the dirt. Council's demands should keep pace with changing and improving building technologies.

The legendary Wal-Mart arrogance was in full summer bloom last week. During the epic 10-year-long Ontario Municipal Board battle that preceded their arrival in Guelph, they consistently denied they had plans to anchor a super centre.

Yet the paint was barely dry on their sign before they announced plans to expand. For several months they have had signs on their property announcing new stores that were "coming soon." They take it for granted that their sheer size will roll over anyone who gets in their way.

We should be proud to have city councillors who do not automatically ask how high whenever Sam Walton tells them to jump.

There was one other very important difference between last week's meeting and one at the Italian Canadian Club four or five years ago. The large room at the ICC was packed, with dozens of delegates speaking out against putting Wal-Mart into that location.

At the end of the meeting, only three councillors gave any explanation at all for why they would vote the way they did. Those were Cathy Downer, Lise Burcher and Maggie Laidlaw. The other 10 mutely raised their hands in abject obeisance to the development dollars.

Last week, all 13 people around the horseshoe spoke out with reasoned rationales either in favour or against. That alone shows an enormous growth in the maturity of the women and men who govern our city.

It is not over yet, and now is not the time for silence. I am convinced that if there had been a vote, the majority of people in Guelph did not want a Wal-Mart between Woodlawn Cemetery and the Ignatius Centre. They might not have cared if the store came to Guelph, but not there.

If you think the power centre should not grow bigger on that corner, put up your hand now. Write letters to the editor. Send e-mails to city council. Do something to join the debate and frame the way our city will grow.

Let there be no misunderstanding, though. If city council says no to the developers again in September, the argument will go back to the OMB. A similar Wal-Mart fight is brewing in Toronto. The outcome there might help settle the matter here. We have two months to decide if we want to get back into the trenches.

(July 8) - Bigger is not always better. Sometimes it is, but not usually. I don’t think bigness helped children get a better education when the school boards were merged. Our local credit union didn’t become better when it became Meridian. It is unlikely that our hydro delivery will improve after it is swallowed by Horizon Utilities.

The Upper Grand District School Board was formed 10 years ago by amalgamating the Wellington County Board of Education with Dufferin. This happened during the Mike Harris years. Even though the former Premier was a former teacher, quality of education was never a priority with his government. It was all about cutting services and taxes. The merger shifted control of the system further away from local citizens. Guelph ended up with fewer trustees.

Amalgamation didn’t make teachers’ jobs any easier. Nor did it improve the education received by students. In this one, bigger was worse.

The Credit Union growth is a bit more complex. I’ve been a member for over 35 years. When I joined, it was in a basement office on College Ave. It went through a series of mergers, ending in a great big one in 2005. Meridian is now the biggest credit union in Ontario. The head office is in St. Catharines. Service at the two Guelph branches is still exceptional, and it will always be better than a chartered bank. Credit Unions are financial co-operatives, owned and controlled by members. When the Meridian merger was put to a vote, I was one of the minority who said no.

Becoming huge made it stronger, but not better. Neither did it get worse. In this case, bigger was relatively neutral.

Now we are staring down the throat of a Hydro buy out. Something the stock markets would call a hostile take over.

At the moment, the citizens of Guelph own Guelph Hydro. Horizon Utilities came along with an offer to purchase before we’d even begun thinking of selling. This is the company that was born when Hamilton Hydro bought St. Catharines Hydro. They are also trying to buy Brant County Power.

The provincial government wants fewer electricity distribution companies in Ontario, and Horizon is aggressively trying to make it happen. It wants to be the diner, but do we want to be the dinner?

In this age of increasing environmental awareness, this is the wrong direction for an electrical utility. It should not be moving towards a monolith that has been immunized against local control. Instead of this, we should have a network of community based distribution outlets that can work together co-operatively. That’s the best way to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The job of government is to supply the tools to make this happen.

City council is studying a business case put forward by Horizon. We don’t know what’s in it because property deals are always done in camera. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s strangely appropriate that an electrical connection is being made with the lights off.

Some reports have Horizon offering a million or more dollars. Others have them promising a 20 per cent rate reduction that is really only four per cent. None of it matters.

Any good salesman can dress a hog in an evening gown and make it look beautiful. But underneath it is still a hog. Our councillors should be able to see through the slick sales pitches and look at what they’re getting. They should be wise enough to know one thing.

If we want to leave a smaller footprint, we have to start wearing smaller boots.

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Everyone in Guelph is excited and happy that Sister Christine has been recognized with the Order of Canada. She deserves it much more that some of the people who were recognized in the past. She certainly has much more merit than Conrad Black. Black’s award should have been called back the minute he was led out of a Chicago courtroom in handcuffs. There is no reason for him to be treated any more leniently than was Alan Eagleson when he went to prison.

There is something very disturbing about the image of Black sitting down for breakfast in his Florida penitentiary with an Order of Canada medal hanging on his lapel. There is something equally refreshing about Sister Christine serving breakfast with one hanging on her apron.

(July 2) - We’ve now put 141 Canada Days behind us. Seven since the catastrophic events of September 11 2001. What has come to characterize the state of our nation in the years since those terrible crimes were unleashed in New York? It isn’t the sight of Canadian troops on patrol in Kandahar. They are bravely fighting a fight the politicians should never have joined. The sooner they are brought home the better.

The defining image of our country is unfolding in a courthouse down the 401. It’s not pleasant. If you have been following the news, you will know that a young man is on trial in Brampton accused of plotting the downfall of our country. He is the first Canadian to be brought before a judge under the Anti-Terrorism Act, and he has been held in jail since 2006.

Also, if you have been following the news, you will know the evidence against him is flimsy at best. He was apparently one in a group of young men whose minds were shaped in equal parts by their video games and by their religion. Like many others in their age group, they said foolish things and concocted unrealistic fantasies.

We are not fighting terror. We have fallen under its spell.

Who in their right minds would ever believe that they would ever get close enough to behead the Prime Minister? Who could believe that Rockwood Conservation Area would be used as a jihadist training camp?

Only one thing gave this absurdity any credibility at all. The kids are Muslims.

After September 2001, our politicians became sudden converts to the precautionary principle. They never bought into it in all the years that thousands of new chemicals were introduced to workplaces. When unions asked that they be banned until they are proven safe, the politicos said it can’t be done. The same thing when environmentalists argued that pesticides should be banned if they can’t be proven safe. The politicians stood firm in their rejection of caution. But show them a Muslim with a preposterous plan and they go all weak in the knees.

We haven’t just become afraid of Muslims. We’ve become afraid of shadows.

We talk tough but behave weakly. We imprison people not for what they have done, but for what we are afraid they might do. Public policy is set by the bureaucrat with the most vivid imagination. When that happens, we lose our direction as a nation.

For further evidence, look at the cases of Brenda Martin and Omar Khadr.

Martin was arrested and imprisoned in Mexico in 2006. She was charged and eventually convicted of money laundering. During her trial, the Canadian government intervened on her behalf. After her conviction, the Canadian government paid a fine for her and sent a private jet to bring her home. She was held briefly in Kitchener then released on parole.

Khadr has been in the American prison at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. Conditions there are far worse than anything found in any Mexican prison. He is the only Canadian there. Britain and Australia secured the release of their nationals from Guantanamo. Canada has not even tried to do so.

It makes you wonder. Martin and Khadr were both born in Canada. They were both arrested and imprisoned under harsh conditions in a foreign country. They both steadfastly maintain they are not guilty. What difference is there between them? For one thing, Martin was 49 years old when she was arrested, Khadr was 15. For another, Martin has been convicted and Khadr hasn’t. Other than that, what difference is there? Yes indeed. It makes you wonder.

It doesn’t have to be like this. We can do better. We have put 141 Canada Days behind us. While it hasn’t been an unblemished history, it was mostly peaceful. There was a bad patch near the beginning when Louis Riel led the Métis rebellions. Back in 1885 the government regarded him as a leader of a terrorist organization and sent him to the gallows. Today he is considered a hero, the father of Manitoba.

That’s the trouble with a war on terror. We can’t define the enemy, so we imagine it. Then it changes shape, disappears, reappears and takes on the face of whomever we are afraid of at the moment. It’s a poor way to run a country.

The Americans might mend their ways in November. When will we?