Mr. Joseph Squitti
Mayor
Municipality of Alleyn-and-Cawood
10 Jondee Rd,
Danford  Lake, Quebec
J9X 1P0

Danford Lake, 28 January 2006

Subject:          Public information about the proposed engineered landfill site in Danford Lake

Dear Mr. Squitti,

In your letter of 12 October 2005 to all Alleyn-and-Cawood residents, you claimed that, in October 2004, “all ratepayers in Alleyn-and-Cawood received from the municipality an information leaflet containing a brief description of new environmental laws, a possible engineered landfill project and an invitation to a public information meeting where [they] could obtain more details on this project and voice [their] questions and concerns.”

In a letter of 23 December 2005, Mr. Denis rouleau stated: “It is our opinion that the taxpayers of the host municipality of Alleyn-and-Cawood were properly informed of the project starting in October 2004”.

This “information leaflet” written as a letter dated October 4, 2004 had no letterhead, no subject line, no signature and indeed had all the appearance of a simple circular letter. In fact, it merely informed residents that, because of new environmental regulations, the old trench landfill would have to be shut down and that the council was proposing to replace it with a new landfill, called an “engineered landfill”.

In other words, the letter did not contain a single word about the real scope of the project. It did not describe in any way, shape or form a regional landfill project that would serve the entire Outaouais, 4 MRCs, the City of Gatineau, that would receive not only municipal household waste, but also industrial, commercial, institutional, agricultural, and construction waste, and that would lead, among other things, to a significant increase in truck traffic through the village and on the roads leading to the site (105, 301, 148). That letter does not constitute a true consultation process.

Pursuant to Section 9 of the Quebec Access to Information Act (Loi sur l’accès aux documents d’organismes publics), we are hereby asking you to send us a copy of all documents related to the campaign that you said was organized by the Municipality to properly inform its citizens, and, more particularly, for a copy of the following documents:

1. the agenda of the public meeting held on October 16, 2004;
2. the minutes of the public meeting held on October 16, 2004;
3. the number and names of persons in attendance (we are interested in finding out how many of your 700 ratepayers actually attended the meeting, since it was held at a time when several hundreds of them had already closed their cottage for the winter);
4. the minutes of all caucus meetings held during 2004, 2005 and 2006.

We also would like to know of any other steps that the Municipality has taken to properly inform citizens.

Truly yours,

André Carrière,
Coalition Against Danford Megadump

cc.
Mme Nathalie Normandeau,
ministre des Affaires municipales
Monsieur Thomas J. Mulcair,
ministre du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et des parcs
Mme Charlotte L’Écuyer, députée de Pontiac
M. Réjean Lafrénière, député de la Gatineau
MRC de Pontiac
MRC de la Vallée-de-la-Gatineau
M. Marc Bureau, maire de Gatineau