A highly controversial and consequential decision was made at council on Monday, and I’m not talking about Guelph city council’s unanimous decision to push ahead with the Baker Street Redevelopment.
At a meeting of the Guelph-Eramosa Township council, they voted 4 to 1 against approving an application by Xinyi, a Chinese float glass company, to open a massive facility at Highway 124 and Wellington Road 32. The concern was not only about the 1.6 million litres of water that the plant would use each day, but some potentially nasty fumes that could have entered Guelph air space.
Those critiques are simplified, and there was a highly detailed article in the Wellington Advertiser that laid it all out in detail, but needless to say that there were more than a few legitimate concerns.
On the other side, many people were looking at the positives, like jobs. The Xinyi plant would employ between 350 and 400 people and considering that this is advanced manufacturing we’re talking about, these would likely be well paying jobs.
It’s worth noting that part of Xinyi application was for the construction of accessory dwelling units on site. I guess working at Xinyi is so great that some of its employees just want to live there too.
Jobs are important, but let’s consider something radical: Does having a good job matter in a world with no clean air, and little drinking water?
Some of you may read that and consider it over the top, but can we afford to discount the worse case scenario? Heck, even one of the leaders of the citizens group driving resistance to the plant’s approval is quoted by Global News’ Matt Carty as saying that she hopes Xinyi finds another location.
Why? Because no one wants to be against jobs. Or at least certain jobs.
Let’s go down to Queen’s Park where earlier this week the new Ontario government cancelled 758 contracts for green energy projects.
Saul Peralta, the CEO of Infinitum Energy in Kitchener, told CTV News that the people who have already made the conversion to solar may be facing more expensive costs when it comes to replacements or repairs. He won’t be able to hire the workers to address the growing need.
Ben Van Tol, who’s been working on a renewable water power project for years in Mount Forest, also told CTV that the government’s move might cost him, and he’s one of numerous business people in the sustainable energy business that might go looking for support elsewhere.
I know, the government’s not supposed to pick winners and losers. Unless, of course, you’re in oil and gas, in which case your industry is the must subsidized in the G7. Oh, and with the least transparency.
We complain bitterly about gas taxes, but we seem perfectly cool with the $3.3 billion a year that the federal government spends on fossil fuel subsidies. Guess where the money for those subsidies comes from!
This is all a means of saying that we put a premium on some jobs and not others. I should add that you don’t see a lot of work anymore for squires anymore. Or blacksmiths. Or video store clerks. I speak to that last one from personal experience.
Jobs are always going to be the argument in favour of any industry, especially if they’re of the vaunted middle-class variety, but there are always more jobs, and there is only one Earth. On which should we place the more value?
But those celebrating Xinyi’s political defeat should take a moment because the battle may be far from over. The company may still look to the Environmental and Land Tribunal to appeal.
And if people are still concerned about water taking, there’s still one big customer that’s helping themselves to a million litres of water a day or more. I think you know where this is going.
Yes, the Nestle water bottling plant in Aberfoyle continues to be allowed to take up to 3.6 million per day. Nestle says they don’t hit that cap everyday, or even on a regular basis, but you don’t own 7.4 per cent of the global stake of bottle water, which is the third highest behind Danone and Coca-Cola, by being conservative.
Speaking of Conservative, maybe the PC government of Ontario, if they’re interested in revisiting the decisions of the previous government, should look at Aberfoyle’s water taking permit, which, as of a week from Tuesday, will have been expired for two years.
The Liberals clearly did not want to brass off job creators like Nestle, but they also didn’t want to make the very vocal environmental and conservation lobbies angry. Understandable, but governance is about making the tough decisions, like the Guelph-Eramosa council did Monday night.
More good jobs are appealing, but there are many long-term costs that come with certain jobs when they’re secured. As with everything, we need a more balanced approach, which is to say a middle path, which is to say bipartisanship.
It’s magical thinking, but then again, so is the idea that big glass factory taking millions of litres of water and many dangerous chemicals being utterly benign to a community.
