CBS resident picks bone with council, Municipal Affairs
Letter to the Editor
Do you know of any government official who may be able to help with this problem? None of the people I emailed have responded.
I am sending this to Lieutenant Governor Joan Marie Aylward, Premier Andrew Furey, Opposition Leader Tony Wakeman, NDP Leader James Dinn, the Clerk of the House of Assembly, Peter Cowan of CBC, and NTV legislative reporter Ben Cleary.
The Town of CBS development regulations 2011-2021 state as follows:
Pg 45 #5.28
#1 Removal or placement of soil or other material, or alteration to the natural grade or drainage of a property which adversely affects a watercourse or adjacent property shall not be permitted.
#5.32. 1 Land shall be used and graded in a manner that does not alter the natural flow of water or result in run-off from land or development causing damage to other property.
In September 2018 I notified the Town of CBS concerning a contractor working for the Town dumping re-construction waste on a natural surface water course on private property.
On Sept. 20, 2018, the Town sent an inspector and notified the property owner with a report (a stop work order I was told) to cease backfilling and get a proper permit. Dumping did not cease and on Oct. 8th, 2018, my wife and I went to the Town engineering department and complained again but there was no follow up to stop the dumping and it continued for another two years. Within that two years I still complained but was just ignored.
My Daughter moved into her new home in February 2017 and for five years everything was fine. In February 2022 her home got flooded out with water coming up under the floor, and hasn’t gone down since, with the sump pump just keeping ahead of it.
I went to ATIPP and results proved that:
#1 no permit issued to property owner.
#2 no permit issued to the contractor working for the Town.
#3 no stop work order issued to the contractor.
#4 Town did nothing to stop the backfilling. Why? They wouldn’t tell me.
Thousands of tons of re-construction waste and asphalt was dumped and as a result I believe the ground water table has been altered. I had two meetings with the Town and they refused to do anything to correct the problem.
I then contacted Municipal Affairs in 2022. I got nowhere, only to be told to hire a lawyer.
Towns have to go to Municipal Affairs to get permission to make by-laws, yet when they ignore enforcing them, Municipal Affairs says they can’t do anything about it, yet article #103 of the Municipal Planning Act 2000 says they can, yet they will not do anything to make the Town enforce it.
I believe legislation needs to change to stop towns like CBS being above the law and no government department can stop them. Minister John Haggie is giving towns full control over handling by-laws. Please don’t let this happen. I agree with towns handling their own regulations and by-laws obtained through the Municipalities Act, but when they ignore them and turn a blind eye as to what is going on, they should be held accountable. Minister Haggie already knows what went on with the Town of CBS not enforcing their by-law. Why is he now dropping all responsibility?
All I wanted was for the Town to have the property owner install a proper drain to handle the water flow before it was diverted to our and others property. If they had listened when I first complained this wouldn’t have happened, but now that the damage is done, they don’t care.
The public should not be subject to stress and anxiety created by this town. One recent Saturday just before 11 p.m., until Sunday 4 a.m., we had a power outage in our area. Luckily we were home. My daughter, my wife, and I managed to set up my portable generator and kept the flooding at bay. The last time my daughter got flooded out I sent a video to my ward councillor. To this day he has not responded. There again, who cares?
Can you help make us a Happy New Year?
Harry Tucker
CBS