Thanks to the keen eye of veteran Councillor Robert Campbell, further scrutiny of past practice in McNab-Braeside may be warranted, after it was revealed that there are no records indicating monies had been put aside for future landfill closure prior to 2018.
The matter was raised by Campbell at the Township Meeting Tuesday (October 15th).
It’s an issue which would leave the Township out of sync with legislative requirements.
Current Treasurer Suzanne Bouchard says when the Township moved to accounting software in 2018, there was a nil balance in the Waste Management Reserve.
Campbell, who had been absent from Council the last two terms, says as he remembers it, municipalities have always been required to set aside money for future landfill closures.
Bouchard says other than the yearly deposits made since 2018, there’s only one other ledger entry on record.
Mayor Mark MacKenzie says there’s another way to “follow the money”
As municipalities in Ontario have been required to set aside money for future landfill closure in a reserve since the implementation of Ontario Regulation 232/98, which came into effect on August 1st, 1998, we’re talking almost two decades of unaccounted-for funding.
(The regulation mandates financial assurance for the closure and post-closure care of municipal waste landfilling sites, ensuring that funds are available to manage these sites responsibly even after they are no longer in use).
By Rick Stow
