PelhamToday received the following reader letter regarding this week's upcoming Pelham Town Council meeting:
As the Chair of the last council’s Cannabis Control Committee (CCC), I am coming before Pelham Town Council this Wednesday to encourage the new council to walk over the finish line and claim our odour protection prize, namely the Redecan Community Liaison Committee (the Redecan CLC) that is designed to protect Pelham and our neighbouring Welland residents long into the future.
Please attend in person or on YouTube to help us get this done and celebrate a major return on our environmental air quality investment in this community.
The CCC reported to council and the public on August 22, 2022 with our Closing Memo, indicating that it would be up to the new council to take the small step of directing staff to implement the Redecan CLC in accordance with Minutes of Settlement (MOS) negotiated by the Town and Redecan at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), where Pelham was defending its Cannabis Official Plan Amendment (OPA) and Zoning Bylaw Amendment (ZBLA) that were under appeal by Redecan, CannTrust (now Phoena), and Woodstock Biomed. Because of the fall 2022 election, the CCC’s mandate was finished.
The OLT issued its ruling in favour of Pelham (Case No. OLT-22-001930), with CannTrust withdrawing its appeal, Woodstock being dismissed and Redecan settling with Pelham in accordance with the MOS, and Redecan agreeing to take responsibility for odour complaints in a collaborative partnership with the Town and with residents living within 1 km from its 182 Foss Road site, in any direction—including Welland.
The OLT had this to say about the MOS and the Redecan CLC that it establishes: “After careful consideration of the earlier evidence presented, and the more recent overview of the MOS and the revised ZBLA, the Tribunal finds that the proposed settlement between the Town and Redecan conforms to the PPS, conforms to the Town’s OP and the OPA, conforms to the Region’s OP, represents good planning and is in the public interest.”
(PPS is short for Provincial Policy Statement and OP is short for Official Plan.)
You may remember Pelham’s Odourous Industries Nuisance By-Law (OINBL) which is used by the Town to manage air quality when we do not get cooperation from an odour emitter. The OINBL is designed to be used by odour professionals for best results, with a part to play by the Town’s by-law enforcement; and it involves taking sequenced odour measurements all around a facility tailored to the current meteorological conditions. It can be quite expensive to operate and can result in six-figure fines to the emitter. The OINBL motivates emitters, including cannabis producers, to work with the Town collaboratively to save everyone money.
This is what we have achieved with the Redecan CLC, where action taken by Redecan to quickly improve their odour controls is based on complaints from residents being adversely impacted by odour and controls proactively defined in an agreed Odour Contingency Management Plan, rather than triggered by odour measurements exceeding thresholds in the OINBL.
Redecan will bear the costs for its professional engineering work, complaint tracking and reporting, and other responsibilities defined in the MOS. The Town’s third-party costs are for its odour engineer appointed to the CLC who will hold Redecan accountable by providing technical oversight and ensuring compliance with the MOS; and this cost is small.
I look forward to seeing you Wednesday. Council meeting details: Wednesday, June 7, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Town of Pelham regular council meeting, Meridian Community Centre. Livestream: www.youtube.com/townofpelham/live
Tim J. Nohara
Fenwick
