ALL FACTS HAVE BEEN AUTHENTICATED AND CAN BE PROVED IN A COURT OF LAW
June 6, 1991
Mike Harris attends a private dinner meeting at Bigliardi's Steak House to
discuss strategy for securing the Adams Mine site for Toronto's garbage.
Among those present with Mr. Harris at the meeting were:
-Gordon McGuinty, head of Notre Development and very good friend
according to Mike Harris
-Joe Mavrinac, then Mayor of Kirkland Lake, and dump promoter
-Bob Ferguson, then City of Toronto Public Works Commissioner
-Joan King, City of Toronto Councillor
-Peter Minogue, best friend of Mike Harris
1992
Mike Harris' best frind Peter Minogue uses his holding company to invest in
the Adams Mine project (North Bay Nugget, January 24, 2001).
-according to Gordon McGuinty, Mr. Minogue was one of the companies intial
20 investors (Toronto Star, January 25, 2001)
February 25, 1993
Mike Harris invites Metro Councillor Paul Christie and Kirkland Lake Mayor
Joe Mavrinac onto his cable show to sell the Adams Mine project. In response
to a caller's question, Mike Harris endorses the project.
-question-'Should you become Premier and your party forms a government would you
undertake now to insure that the option of rail hauling waste to Kirkland Lake
would be given full consideration as a viable economical and environmental solution
to Toronto's garbage?
-answer-Mike Harris-'Absolutely..'
February 28, 1995
Still in opposition, Mike Harris sends a letter of support for the Adams MIne project
to Metro Toronto Chairman Alan Tonks saying that his caucus has 'continually proposed
and recommended that the Ontario government allow and encourage the pursual {sic} of all
credible and construction options including the Kirkland Lake rail haul solution.
July 5, 1995
Just nine days after being sworn in as Premier, Mike Harris breathed life into
the Adams Mine proposal by announcing his government had scrapped the Interim Waste
Management Authority and would allow municipalities to ship their garbage to sites
outside their boundaries. The move was widely seen as giving the Adams Mine the green light.
Quoted in a release by the Ministry of Environment (July 5, 1995) Premier Harris explained the reasons for his actions.
'The job of the provincial government is to oversee the environmental assessment process and to set
environmental standards, not to assume the responsibility of municipalities," Premier Mike Harris said
on making the announcement. We are acting promptly on our election committments to allow municipalities
to get down to work in the development of waste management strategies that are appropriate for their
communities.
December 1995
When Metro Council votes to turn down the Adams Mine because of cost and go with a cheaper option in Michigan,
the Conservatives begin preparing legislation which would necessitate environmental assessments on sites
that are already up and running in Michigan. The new legislation is slated to take effect in January 1996. Toronto
beats the deadline by signing the contract with the Michigan company and the Tories allow their legislation to slip.
June 1996
The Harris government rewrites the Environmental Assessment Act narrowing the scop of any hearings into landfill sites.
Robert Power, a Toronto lawyer who heads the PC Party Policy Committee on the Environment, told the National Post (August 1, 2000) that
his committee was among those who suggested the province rewrite the Environmental Assessment Act.
Robert Power had represented Toronto when it was the proponent of the Adams Mine in 1995, is asked to sit on two committees having imput
to the changes to the environmental assessment act. Only one project is on the horizon at the time--The Adams Mine. Powers sites in as
vice-chair (and nominal head) of the special PAC committee advising the Minister directly about changes to the EA process. He also sits
on a special advisory panel to the Environment Ministry about changes to the EA act.
November 5, 1996
In the Legislature, Mike Harris expresses his 'wholehearted and enthusiastic support' to the Adams Mine proposal.
June 1998
After denying intervener funding to critics and allowing just 15 days of hearings, a three-member Environmental Assessment panel
approved the Adams Mine project in a 2-1 decision. Robert Powers is the lawyer representing Notre Development at the hearing.
Despite the fact that it would be one of the largest landfills in North America, the Adams Mine hearings are limited to one question only-
whether computer models supplied by the proponent are feasible. All other potential impacts are disallowed. The Adams Mine remains the
only project to have been subjected to this special narrow 'scoping' rules.
Right after winning the Adams Mine hearing, lawyer Robert Power is given the plum patronage job as head of the Trillium Fund. The move is
widely attacked as a Tory 'coup'.
June, 2000
A report by the City of Toronto Works Commissioner recommends extending the life of the Keele Valley dump
until 2006 by taking only 700,000 tonnes of garbage annually instead of its usual 1.4 million tonnes.
The report also recommended Toronto's 1.8 million annual tonnes of garbage be divided among three landfills - two
near Windsor and the other in Michigan-with the remainder going to the Keele Valley site, the dump that was slated to close in 2002.
The city stands to save $62 million over 20 years by keeping Keele Valley open, the report says.
June 20, 2000
The Minister of the Environment intervenes and closes the Keele Valley option for Toronto. The Minister tells the legislature, 'The
Province does have legislative options to ensure that the Keele Valley dump is not extended beyond 2002.
The same day, Cameron Clark, Deputy Minister, Northern Development and Mines, sends a letter to Toronto Council confirming that
the Adams Mine region is a 'willing host'. This is a central issue, as the three signatory municipalities actually have no
jurisdiction over the township where the mine is located.
July 21, 2000 at 1:31 p.m.
A letter from Mike Harris to the Chairman of Toronto's Joint Works and Finance Committee is distributed to committee members as
they are debating the issue.
The letter effectively indicates the Premier's direct interest in the contract and closes the Keele Valley option for Toronto.
The Toronto Sun reports that Works committee chairman Bill Saundercook said the letter leaves the city with no alternative by to send
its household garbage to Kirkland Lake and its industrial waste to Michigan.
The letter was meant to be delivered in camera, so the public would not be aware that Harris had intervened. A bureaucratic cock-up,
however, made the letter's author known to the public.
October 20, 2000
Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman announces that the proposal to ship Toronto's garbage to the Adams Mine is dead.
November 13, 2000
On municipal election night, dump advocate and Kirkland Lake Mayor elect Bill Enouy
states in a local radio interview that he received a congratulary phone call from Premier Harris.
It is very unusual of an Ontario Premier to make such a call to a small Northern Ontario town not even
in his own riding. Stranger still, Mr. Enouy, told the Northern Daily News (November 14, 2000) that the Premier
had called him the Friday before the election to discuss another issue. Why would a Premier be calling a Mayoralty
candidate rather than the duly elected Mayor?
January, 2001
It is revealed that Mike Harris' campaign manager, Barb Minogue is a long-time investor in the Adams Mine, through her husband's investment
company.
The news is released during a scandal about potential government interference in rewriting Environmental rules to allow a controversial
housing development by the Minogues on Callander Bay near North Bay. Premier Harris says the fact that his campaign manager is an investor
is no big deal. Harris says many of his friends are investors, including (according to CBC radio interview) 'my very good friend
Gordon McGuinty. January 31, 2001.
Toronto city council votes 36-4 never to send its garbage to Adams Mine
February 6, 2001
Michigan State Governor John Engler sends a letter to Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman stating he doesn't want
Toronto's garbage in his State and suggested that the Adams Mine Project would be beneficial to Northern Ontario.
The Premier's spokesperson Hillary Stauth denies the Premier's involvement with the Governor's letter saying the
allegations were 'unsubstantiated'.
February 7, 2001
It is revealed at the City of Toronto's Public Works Committee meeting that the Province has inquired
as to the cost of buying out the City's contract with Republic Waste to ship garbage to Michigan.
February 9, 2001
A report in the Toronto Star reveals that officials in Mike Harris' office assisted Governor Engler
in the preparation of his letter to Mel Lastman. Governor Engler is a friend and political ally of
Mike Harris' each using the same political consultant, Mike Murphy.
Premier Harris' office denies having any involvment with the letter by this position is contridicted by
Engler's staff.
February 10, 2001
Toronto Star reports that Mike Harris had two conversations with Adams Mine promoter Joe Mavrinac, one
of them a private meeting in his constituency office.
Marvrinac told Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley that on both of these occasions they needed to 'stir things up'
on the trucking of waste to Michigan to get Adams Mine back on the table.
'They're trying to manipulate us,' Bradley told the Star, 'to get the Adams Mine back on the table."
