Ingersoll’s mayor is flying to Belgium Tuesday in an attempt to stop a landfill.
Ted Comiskey – and much of his town – continue to fight against the proposed Walker Environmental Group's landfill on the border of Ingersoll.
It’s a dump that would collect GTA trash and is slated for an old quarry site, under a kilometre from the town limits.
On Tuesday, he’ll board a transatlantic plane to meet directly with Rodolphe Collinet. CEO of the company that plans to lease the land to dump operators. The mayor will also meet with journalists.
"We want to hit home and say, ‘Do you understand the effect this could have on the population of the town of Ingersoll for decades?’”
The Belgian mining company Carmeuse owns the site, but Walker plans to lease a portion and turn it into one of the largest landfills in the province.
The trip overseas comes at an ironic time, as Carmeuse workers just outside of Ingersoll remain on strike. While the mayor is hopeful this situation will resolve itself soon, he says his priority in the discussion overseas will be the landfill issue.
The mayor says contacting overseas media about the town’s plight, helped secure the meeting at Carmeuse headquarters.
It comes as Ingersoll builds up a $300,000 legal war chest to fight the dump.
The first phase of approval was to have been announced at Queen’s Park last month. Comiskey hopes the delay means the government is ready to quash the idea.
“I’m hoping they are delving deeper into this and hopefully they will realize the fact, this is not the place for it.”
Comiskey has the support of his council.
"...Ingersoll has been very active as of lately in our opposition to the landfill," says Coun. Brian Petrie.
"We have passed a resolution stating our position that we do not wish to accept leachate from anyone other then from our own faciliites."
A public meeting will be held Wednesday on Walker Environmental Group’s proposal and the Beachville area air quality work plan.
It’s set for 7 p.m. at the Colombo Club in Beachville.
