actions/letters2auth-savedanford.com

A resident on Danford Lake has brought to our attention an exchange of correspondence with you. You made several points in your reply. Could you please clarify the following for us:

LDC’s ownership record:

“I can confirm that indeed, Cohen and Cohen own a 75 % participation in LDC, I can also inform you that M. Denis Rouleau owns the remaining 25% of this company.”

Yet, some confusion remains: (a) On his Website, Mr. Denis Rouleau states that his company, LDC, is a 100% Quebec corporation whose private shareholders are three Ottawa-based businessmen and one Gatineau-based businessman; (b) On 26 September 2005, Mr. D. Rouleau declared to one of Danford Lake residents that LDC was owned by two or three Toronto-based investors and himself; c) In the Registraire des entreprises du Québec, Mr. Rouleau is named as the majority shareholder, “administrateur” and “président secrétaire”.

We are simply trying to establish who owns LDC.

LDC’s track record in the management and operation of engineered landfills:

In his letter of October 5, 2004, Mayor Squitti stated: “To assist us in moving this project forward, the council has endorsed the association with LDC to provide the technical expertise…”.

Yet, when asked, Mayor Squitti could not name a single engineered landfill managed and/or operated by LDC.

Cohen and Cohen’s track record in the field of management and operation of engineered landfills: “Cohen and Cohen «entered» the environmental management industry 35 years ago…”

We do know that Cohen and Cohen is a well-established scrap metal and demolition company, which also deals with office furniture and metal. Yet, we were unable to establish the level of your expertise in the management and operation of engineered landfills.

On the CIEVO’s Website, Mr. Denis Rouleau claims that Cohen and Cohen has 35 years of experience “in the field”. Considering that the link “Environmental” is blank on your website (“…coming soon…”), would you please clarify the level of your own expertise in the management and operation of engineered landfills?

4. “No formal project has been presented yet […] A referendum held at this point in time would be unfair in our opinion since most of the information made available to the residents of Alleyn and Cawood comes from a group opposed to the concept of such a facility...”

This is simply not true. LDC and the Municipality have had over a year and a half to provide information to the residents, and have made several attempts to do so. If the residents are confused, it is because the information provided to them was inconsistent and misleading.

Both the promoter and the Mayor apparently believe that the residents have been given ample information. For example, in his letter dated October 12, 2005, in which he invited all residents of Alleyn-and-Cawood to a public information meeting on October 29, 2005, Mayor Squitti stated: “One year ago, in October 2004, all ratepayers of Alleyn and Cawood received from the municipality an information leaflet containing a brief description of new environmental laws, a possible engineered landfill project […]. With the general consensus of those who attended and the support of the municipal council, the promoter proceeded with the project.”

This was confirmed by Mr. Denis Rouleau in his letter of 23 December 2005 to Mr. Shannon Martin, President of the Danford Lake and District Property Owners Association: “It is our opinion that the taxpayers of the host municipality of Alleyn and Cawood were properly informed of the project starting in October 2004.”

While it is the Coalition’s view that no proper consultation took place, there is no question that both the mayor and the promoter believe ample “information” has been provided. The plain fact is that they do not want a referendum because they recognize that the overwhelming majority of voters in the Municipality are opposed to the project, and therefore the outcome of a referendum would be a foregone conclusion.

Conflict of interest:

“Teknika HBA does not own any participation in the ownership of LDC in any way, shape or form.”

In his letter of 23 December 2005 to Mr. Shannon Martin, President of the Danford Lake and District Property Owners Association, Mr. Denis Rouleau stated: “LDC mandated the sanitary landfill specialists from Teknika HBA to assist the company in the management and operations of the CIEVO. Fondex Outaouais recently joined the Teknika-HBA-Group.”

It is bad enough that the promoter is in charge of the environmental impact study. Now we learn that the company doing the environmental impact study on behalf of the promoter has joined the company (Teknika-HBA-Group) that would be managing and operating the landfill site together with LDC. In other words, LDC and Fondex are judge, jury and executioner.

5. Fairness

In your reply to the person exchanging correspondence with you, you raised the issue of fairness. This is apparently a concept that you value.

As you know, with great effort on the part of all members of the community of Alleyn-and-Cawood, we have managed to create a Website (www.savedanford.com). after having previously being the guest on the www.danfordlake.com website. Members of the Coalition aired their views and mentioned these two websites on Lowell Greene’s Show on landfills which aired on CFRA radio on February 19.

Mr. Denis Rouleau immediately reacted by registering www.savedanford.ca and www.danfordlake.ca on behalf of the company 6062954 CANADA INC., presumably 75% owned by Cohen and Cohen. Since LDC already has its own website it is obvious that Mr. Rouleau’s action had the sole purpose of trying to trick people who were interested in going to our website into visiting his instead. This is not illegal. But it is certainly sleazy. While we are used to this style of deception by Mr. Rouleau and LDC, we are surprised that Cohen and Cohen would sanction such tactics by your subsidiary.

The Coalition Against Danford Megadump consists of ordinary citizens who have lost trust in their elected officials and who are combining their efforts to oppose a project which they deem harmful to their community and its future.

Yours truly,

André Carrière,

President

cc.

Nerio de Candido, Lawyer

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