A reader wonders if a closed down CSL shipyard in Collingwood might be on the recipient list for Paul Martin’s election promise of $1billion to clean up the Great Lakes and waterways…
Sediment from only a small, localized portion of the harbour was found to be contaminated, mainly due to historical use of the harbour as a center for the repair and construction of Great Lakes vessels.
On August 9, 1983 citing federal government interference in the shipping industry, Martin stated: “then… they are going to come in with some grand and glorious package that will give the government control of the industry because they don’t understand private enterprise.”
By the mid-1980s, CSL’s only remaining shipyard (Collingwood) was undergoing financial difficulties and was closed on September 12, 1986 with the loss of 800 jobs. At the same time, CSL Group Inc.’s expansion outside of Canada was well underway. In November, 1988 President and CEO Paul Martin was elected as a Member of Parliament and stepped aside from directing the day-to-day operations of the company.
Shipyards, town working towards development agreement….Currently , CSL is completing remediation work on the soil, which should be completed by early spring, said Houghton . (Dec.9, 2005)
Hey, they’re entitled to their entitlements.
I think it was Bob Fife at yesterday’s press conference who actually asked Martin if CSL was dumping into the Great Lakes. Glare from Martin, and then a short ‘no’. Funny how all the things Martin and the Libs have been getting away with for years, have suddenly resurface, and the media, with the exception of the Mother Corpse, seem more than happy to air the Libs’ dirty laundry. One can’t help but wonder where they’ve been all these years when this abuse was taking place.
The greatest concentration of toxicity from Martin isnt from his abandoned hulks and yards but the cynical statements he makes about government “interference” in the shipping industry…Hell he invented it! “Interference is fine when it gets you bidless contracts, tax exemptions. off shore business and executive patronage but it’s bad when it makes you clean up your mess and act as a responsible corporate citizen and patriot.
Maybe Martin should take a page from the Irvings in their “whale project”..with the right government connections Irving got years of clear sailing from substandard out of reg shipping then when he made a mess he got the feds to clean it up for him and subsidize his labor force.
Watching the news is getting very painful indeed. One thing, I read the blogs first and then watch and see how long it takes the main stream media to report it. (And their spin.) IF we had a free media, most of what has been uncovered in the last couple of months would have been reported earlier. Paulie looks like he is ready for a seniors home. Yesterday, a lovely old lady laid down the “rules” on Layton yesterday. She told Jack Layton would you please quite saying these things about Steven Harper, he is going to be the next PM and you should be nicer to him, okay! Jack was caught on TV, he smiled and answers yes! Even in an old folks home your not safe from attacks!
What about all the years of cargo-hold washing that went and still goes on, CSL has helped plaster the bottom of the Lakes with coal dust, iron ore dust, and waste grain. Martin’s so fulla swzchiddt, I’m surprised his head hasn’t split open.
dont be too quick to criticize, one of the ways of reducing greenhouse gases was suggested that the antarctic ocean area be seeded with iron ore dust to promote the growth of plankton. Maybe under the new kyoto accord CSL will be considered a carbon sink.
A question for someone out there. Can Quebec be paid by Alberta for greenhouse gas credits or does the money have to be sent over the border to get credit???
dont be too quick to criticize, one of the ways of reducing greenhouse gases was suggested that the antarctic ocean area be seeded with iron ore dust to promote the growth of plankton. Maybe under the new kyoto accord CSL will be considered a carbon sink.
A question for someone out there. Can Quebec be paid by Alberta for greenhouse gas credits or does the money have to be sent over CDN border to get credit??? maybe to a big emmitter like China.or a similar sized one like Australia.??
Mary M. is spot on with “Watching the news is getting very painful indeed”. “IF we had a free media, most of what has been uncovered in the last couple of months would have been reported earlier.”
The fact is that investigative journalism is non existent in Canadian MSM. The corruption that has existed in the Liberal government for the past twelve years is the result of willful blindness by MSM, and ultimately the enablers of corruption in Canada.
Nothing will change until we get real media competition. Come to Canada FOX News!!
Here’s what my poor, bog-Irish mind can’t fathom:
Big Business, including CSL, pollute and make lots of money. In turn Big Business donate large sumes of money to keep the LIberals in office. Big Business holds a gun to the head of goverment asnd says “help pay for the clean-up or we’ll close down the factory/yard/mill/whatever and put lots of folks out of work.The Liberals, then spend large sums of taxpayers money to help Big Business clean up the mess.
Since the Canadian Establishment is run by folks who control large businesses in Eastern Canada, is there any wonder why Westerners might feel somewhat alianated to thw whole exercise?
Just my poor little Irish mind working as hard as it can.
Mike —it wasnt just the Libs that Bay Street keeps in office. Mulroney and his ilk were the same. Bay Street and the family compacts cant afford to have the Libs thrown out Lock Stock
In the eastern mind, the original Tories have been hijacked by the upstart Alliance. The Alliance was for grass roots democracy, recalling MPs, things that dont allow for the continuous kickback schemes that have been part of the
Dumbinion of Canaduh since inception.
This oligarchy has been run from Bay Street and through the Montreal Money families for too long.
thats why Alphonso felt so at home , he fit right in.
FREE THE WEST!!!!
Guvmnt of Canada announces
5yr/30million/47 Restoration projects.
8 Guvment departments involved.
1. Health Canada
2. Fisheries & Oceans
3. Canadian Heritage
4. Transport Canada
5. Natural Resources Canada
6. Agriculture & Agri Food Canada
7. Public Works & govt Services Canada
8. Environment Canada
All these Guvment employees with nothing to do,
Better create some work for them so there appears to be a reason for their existence.
I mention Martin’s extreme hypocrisy in my blog, check it out if you want.
While scary Harper was calling Canada a Euro welfare state, Martin was finance minister and his ships were avoiding canadian taxes, getting grants with public money and polluting the great lakes. Now he wants us to pay to clean it up. I’m glad he’s running on his record.
Bob Fife asks Martin if CSL is still dumping into the Great Lakes. Martin responds with an assertive “NO”.
My question is how does Martin know if CSL is or is not dumping? Isn’t he supposed to be blind to the affairs of this company? To avoid conflict of interest he supposedly gave CSL to his sons?
And from his $1 billion dollar announcement, will any of this money go to CSL? For example, will CSL be paid to help clean up the slag that CSL dumped?
Relative to the point here I grew up in Collingwood, my father was employed by the “yard” basically till it’s closure and many of my peers worked there till it’s final closure. The remedial cleanup of CSL’s impact on the area basically can be said to be two part. Innitially there was a “cleanup” of the harbour. This was undertaken by slurry pumping harbour sediment and disposing of it in a supposed “containment area” north of the exiting grain elevator. The problem with this, IMHO, was that the “containment” berms were existing rock filled timber cribs allowing water to still permeate and leach contaminates into the water to this day.
The current cleanup involves remedial soil containment on the current site in the form of a bermed “landscape feature”. The issue now that the site is beind developed as prime shore front is that the town will eventually be responsible for the contaminated berm’s contents and stability.
Excellent piece at “The Walrus” on PMPM.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/article.pl?sid=05/05/13/2133233&mode=nested&tid=1
Another scandal it is. Just watched the “The Corporation”. As we know a corporation is to make money, and if it can pass on “cost” or have someone else pay the bill that it is responsible for, or for whatever it wants, it will. And guess what, CSL creates a mess, we taxpayers have to clean up after them.
Joe Molnar sez:
“Nothing will change until we get real media competition. Come to Canada FOX News!!”
Yo Joe, it’s already here – if you wanna shell out the $ for a digital cable / satelite box. Kinda/sorta like digital radio, but FOXNC is uncensored even in Trudeaupia.
(When “Voice of the Caliphate” – aka al-Jazeera – was applying to put Canadian Muslim minds through the Wahabbi cleaner, Big Brother CRTC couldn’t well refuse FOX News – the polar opposite – could they?)
The Liberanos and the NDs in the Yukon drove almost every single, independant, placer miner out of business here in the Federally OWNED part of Kanadar because they were stirring up the SILT in the Yukon River – the bureaucrats said fish can’t see in the silt!!
The miners are gone and the Liberanos have transplanted their own supporters to the “park’ (Yukon) that the Cretian promised his ‘spouse’ (I am avoiding the use of the term ‘Wife’ since the Cretian does not use those archaic terms – isn’t it out of the dictionary by now??).
Here in the Luxury welfare ‘park’ we produce NOTHING but bills for the rest of the Canadian taxpayers to pay. Most of these people were moved up here at Federal expense, housed in hotels if they didn’t have a house, get two free trips to anywhere in Canada for self and family,…one good socialist even had her HORSE transported up here at government expense.
Larry Bagnell, the M.P. (Liberal) told me last year, when I asked him about the fairness of this practise, that the rest of Canada didn’t mind paying the bills – they were happy to make ‘us’ happy. What do you folks think of this?