Politician who led charge against tire burning now says science could make it OK
Michael Gorman | CBC News | Posted: July 13, 2017 7:52 PM | Last Updated: July 13, 2017
Residents near Lafarge cement plant feeling let down by lack of support from Keith Colwell
Fisheries Minister Keith Colwell says he hasn't changed his mind that burning tires is a bad thing, but he said he can live with that if science backs up burning them for a particular use.
His opinion on the matter has been a hot topic of late as Lafarge Canada gathers the necessary permits to burn tires as fuel in its Brookfield cement plant. The move would allow the company to reduce its use of coal, cutting down its greenhouse gas emissions.
Critics have charged the practice is at best a fuel subsidy for the company and at worst might release dioxins, furans and heavy metals into the air.
'We have to move forward'
In 2007, Colwell was an opposition MLA and architect of a private member's bill amending the Environment Act to ban the burning of tires at a time when Lafarge was trying to get approval for a similar proposal. While the bill was passed in 2008, it was never proclaimed, meaning it hasn't been brought into law.
On Thursday, Colwell told reporters he doesn't know all the information presented to Environment Minister Iain Rankin before Rankin granted the company an environmental assessment for the pilot project, but he's sure it's sound.
"If the minister of environment has got enough confidence in the study and the industry has enough confidence in the study, I think we have to move forward with it," said Colwell.
"From what I understand, Dalhousie has come out with a study that proves that it's very positive to burn the tires. At that time [in 2007] it wasn't."
Minister dodges subsidy question
Residents near the plant who fought in 2007 to prevent a similar application by Lafarge have decried Colwell's lack of support this time around.
Rankin, meanwhile, again dodged questions about whether the project amounts to a fuel subsidy for Lafarge.
The company won a tender to process 30 per cent of the used passenger tires in the province for the next five years.
By burning the tires, it would mean Lafarge won't have to buy as much coal, which save the company money it would normally spend on fuel.
Rankin, however, wouldn't comment on that.
"This is an application that I look at the facts and the science provided and I made my decision based on that," he said.
Lafarge still needs an industrial approval before it can proceed with the one-year project in conjunction with Dalhousie University. The company has said it could be ready to burn tires by early 2018.