‘Powerful testimony’ heard at Shelburne roundtable
Shelburne residents concerned with the ongoing legacy of the Shelburne town dump had the opportunity to tell their stories at a roundtable on environmental racism held at the Osprey Arts Centre in Shelburne.
The March 14 roundtable was hosted by Steven Guilbeault, federal minister of environment and climate change.
“I came mainly to listen to the people of Shelburne and hear their concerns about the dump site and the impact the dump site has had on their community," Guilbeault said in an interview. "To see how the federal government can play a role to support them in different ways."
During the roundtable, Guilbeault said he heard "incredible, powerful testimony from a community that is so closely linked through this hardship.
"I heard stories of community members and family members and how this pollution has impacted them over the decades, but also how they’re (been) deprived some of the services that other citizens haven’t, and what we can do about it.”
Guilbeault said he has been talking about environmental racism with other groups in Canada.
“The federal government, the Liberal government, is supporting a private member's bill already passed through the House of Commons and making its way through the Senate," the minister said. "I’m confident that mostly by June, it will be able to receive royal ascent, which will mean for the first time ever in Canada we start to address environmental racism.
“The Conservative Party of Canada would say environmental racism doesn’t exist. Well, it does, and we’re seeing it across the country. Our government is trying to do something about it, whether it’s drinking water for Indigenous communities, contaminated sites all across the country, which are usually in communities that are racialized. We’re starting to tackle this problem in Canada despite the fact that some would like to tell you it doesn’t exist.”
Bill C-226 is an act respecting the development of a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and to advance environmental justice.
The bill is “a beginning,” said Louise Delisle, founder of the Shelburne-based South End Environmental Injustice Society, adding that once the bill comes into effect, “we will know exactly what our next steps will be.”
FEELING OF HOPE
For residents, the roundtable was more than an opportunity to be heard.
“It gave me a feeling of hope, of possibly being recognized and hopefully have it rectified,” said Sheila Hartley Scott.
“I grew up in that community,” said Hartley-scott, who is president of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society but didn’t attend the roundtable in that capacity.
“I’m here representing the community, our families, our ancestors. A lot of people from where we grew up have passed. There are people who should be in this room today that aren’t because they didn’t survive. They had cancers that were unable to be cured. They can’t tell us it wasn’t something that was caused by the leaching from the dump anymore than they can tell us it was."
Hartley-scott recalls being a kid and growing up in the south end of Shelburne.
“Our parents would take us all down to the sawmill," she said. "Our fathers and grandfathers worked there.
"They would take us down there in the summertime swimming. Then you come to find out not only were you being impacted by the dump, by the smells, but the water you were being taken to swim in, a harbour that was dumping sewage from people’s homes directly into the harbour.
"So you were not really given a chance, because being from an area that wasn’t as affluent as people on the other side of the track, you were being subjected to two things because you couldn’t go to parks, the beaches, whatever, because your parents didn’t have car and you didn’t know you should be anything other than what you were.
"You didn’t have any big expectations that you should have the mansion on the hill, should be wearing designer clothes or anything like that.
We all grew up happy. We all had good childhoods. But what we didn’t have was a voice."
Hartley-scott said now she feels she has “more of a chance of being heard than I did back then.
"It’s getting better but it still has a long way to go," she said.
Community advocate Vanessa Hartley also attended the roundtable.
“I thought it was a great start," Hartley said. "I’m excited to see what happens with environment and climate change next. I’m looking forward to action and change.
“I think it was a lovely opportunity for all of us to collectively share our experiences and to address some of the ongoing concerns, the question marks pertaining to what is happening to the Town of Shelburne report that highlights contaminants coming from the dump.”
A draft report, Shelburne Landfill Investigation, by Dillon Consulting was received by Shelburne town council at its Jan. 15 meeting.
The report recommends the landfill be recapped with a low-permeability soil cover, and vegetative soil placed and hydro-seeded. It also recommends that three access roads and drilling pads be installed along the southern edge of the landfill to provide access for the installation of monitoring wells. The preliminary capital budget for the remediation work is $584,000.
Hartley encourages people to inquire, ask questions, and see what the next steps are in terms of closing the dump and the remediation process.
Town council has deferred the report to the budget process.