As you may have heard Husky Oil Marketing Company wanted to build an asphalt blending plant just east of the corner of Springfield Road and Lagimodiére Boulevard. The idea of putting such a plant in such a location was ridiculous, on the face of it, but the process by which it was almost dealt with before anybody knew about it, is also a matter of great concern to me.

On Wednesday, September 6^th I was tipped off about the plant. The following day I drove out to the site to see for myself and was very angry at what I saw, or couldn't see, to put it more accurately.

The rezoning notice was on the other side of a huge ditch full of tall reeds and water, and not readable or accessible from the road. The only way to be able to read it was to park your car at Kitchen Craft and walk back down the CPR rail siding. It gave notice of a hearing on September 13th.

The following day I called a press conference on the side of the road, which was well attended by the media, and which resulted in some media coverage of the hitherto almost secret plans of Husky Oil.

Thanks in part, I hope, to the media coverage there was a huge turnout at the hearing, and Husky Oil asked for a postponement, which they were granted. A subsequent meeting was to be held on October 11th.

On September 20th Husky Oil decided to withdraw their application for the moment.

What became clear is that the notification process was terribly inadequate. Husky Oil claims that it thought that public input would come later, and that they misunderstood the process. You can judge for yourself whether this is a believable claim.

On November 1st, Husky Oil confirmed that it had decided to abandon its plans to construct the plant at this location.

Although this was not really a matter of federal jurisdiction, I will continue to do all I can, working with other elected people in your area, to make sure we don't have such plants in our neighbourhoods.

Bill Blaikie, MP

2000-11-07