Town of Collingwood, Ontario, Canada

The Town of Collingwood is moving forward to apply a charge of Public Nuisance against Collingwood Ethanol under section 447.1 of the Municipal Act. This action took place on Tuesday August 19, 2008, following an in-camera meeting of Collingwood Council the night before.

”This is an extremely complicated file” said Collingwood Mayor Chris Carrier. “This is our best avenue to ensure our municipality’s rights be protected” Carrier added.

On August 11, 2008, William J. Manuel, Counsel for the Ministry of the Attorney General, wrote to the Town of Collingwood’s Legal Counsel Leo Longo, encouraging the town to work with the Ministry of the Environment and the Company (Collingwood Ethanol) to resolve the issues in a way that protects the local economy, local jobs and the local environment. “We encourage you to work toward such a solution before launching an application” Manuel stated.

Mayor Carrier said the situation has dragged on for too long. “The plant’s needs are not more important than the needs of the community. It is no longer acceptable and we can’t ask the community to tolerate the situation any longer” Carrier added.

"We directed our solicitor and senior staff to make an application before the courts to lay that charge, and so they are starting the investigation process now, the gathering of information and documentation, and will make an application before the courts in several weeks” Carrier stated.

447.1 (1) Upon application of a municipality, the Superior Court of Justice may make an order requiring that all or part of a premises within the municipality be closed to any use for a period not exceeding two years if, on the balance of probabilities, the court is satisfied that,

( a ) activities or circumstances on or in the premises constitute a public nuisance or cause or contribute to activities or circumstances constituting a public nuisance in the vicinity of the premises;

( b ) the public nuisance has a detrimental impact on the use and enjoyment of property in the vicinity of the premises including, but not limited to, impacts such as,

(i) trespass to property,

(ii) interference with the use of highways and other public places,

(iii) an increase in garbage, noise or traffic or the creation of unusual traffic patterns,

(iv) activities that have a significant impact on property values,

(v) an increase in harassment or intimidation, or

(vi) the presence of graffiti; and

( c ) the owner or occupants of the premises or part of the premises knew or ought to have known that the activities or circumstances constituting the public nuisance were taking place or existed and did not take adequate steps to eliminate the public nuisance. 2006, c. 32, Sched. A, s. 184.

Mayor Carrier said a system failure at Collingwood Ethanol on Friday August 15th caused the plant to cut back on capacity. Carrier said this system failure caused what he referred to as one of the worst weekend’s the town has ever experienced in terms of bad odour, saying that he had received one complaint from a construction company stating that workers were walking off the site because they couldn’t breathe.

We do understand the reasons, however we have been understanding the reasons why for a lot of issues for over fourteen months, and when you balance the needs of all of the community against the needs of this one industry, I think it’s time for, and council has agreed, that we move forward in the interest of the whole community” Carrier said.

Mayor Carrier stated that he is not worried about sending a negative message to potential industry leaders considering locating in Collingwood as a result of the ongoing issues with Collingwood Ethanol.

In addition to action taken by the Town of Collingwood, Mayor Carrier stated that the Ministry of the Environment issued two new orders to Collingwood Ethanol on Tuesday August 19th, directing plant officials to have a plan in place to clean up all noise and odour issues by August 31st.