By Don Crosby for The Confederate
West Grey residents may never know what the municipality’s share of the cost of erosion control measures on the North Saugeen River near the Neustadt sewage lagoons. Mayor Kevin Eccles said on Thursday an agreement reached between the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) and West Grey a couple of weeks ago resulted in West Grey withdrawing its appeal to the Environmental Review Tribunal to a work order by the MOE in September 2006 and the ministry lifting its work order was done to save both sides the cost of a lengthy hearing and ensure the project moves forward on time. However the agreement contains a confidentiality clause that prevents the parties from revealing the details of the financial settlement. "There's a confidentiality agreement between the parties . . .which includes ourselves, the municipality and the Environmental Review Tribunal. We can't get into the details of that at this time without the agreement of the other parties," said John Steele media spokesperson for the MOE during an interview on Tuesday from his home. "I had a brief email conversation with the lawyer from the ministry and she pointed out there was some confidentiality agreement . . . and that it was signed by the three parties,” Mr. Steele said. The determination of the final cost sharing agreement has yet to be determined and that won’t take place until the project is completed. “Then we will be able to determine what the municipality will be responsible for and what the province has covered off,” Mayor Eccles said. “That’s when the project manager will probably be able to give you a definite answer on what cost can be allocated to COMRIF (Canada Ontario Rural Infrastructure Fund) and what costs are ineligible which the municipality will have to pick up. Land purchases, legal costs are the responsibility of the proponent of the project and aren’t eligible for COMRIF funding, Mayor Eccles added. "There is a cost sharing agreement but the exact details of that cost sharing agreement is being be kept confidential,” said Mr. Steele who promised to look further into the details of a financial settlement Mayor Eccles said the confidentiality clause was at the insistence of the MOE and West Grey is not in position to waive the confidentiality agreement. “The West Grey council and the provincial government through the MOE have come to an agreement that the council is comfortable on going forward with,” said Mayor Eccles who reiterated that there will not be a public statement detailing the cost sharing agreement at the end of the project. “You may have to do some fact finding work on this one,” he said. “There’s more to say but I can’t say anything else at this point in time. I would like to say more but there is restrictions on it. I will honor that part of the agreement,” the mayor said. The dispute centers around who is responsible to protect the lagoons from further erosion by the South Saugeen River. The government has long argued that the party affected by the erosion must pay for the repairs. MOE spokesperson Phil Bye told council in 2006 that erosion control is the responsibility of the owner when it takes place on private or municipal property. West Grey has argued that it’s not the sewage lagoons that are encroaching on the river, but the provincially owned waterway that is threatening municipal sewage lagoons. In March 2007 West Grey received two thirds of the funding for the erosion control project under COMRIF toward the estimated $2.4 million cost of the erosion control project. It’s the municipality’s $796,000 share that West Grey has refused to pay for in the past. Mayor Eccles said West Grey ratepayers will have to trust that their elected officials are working to get the best deal on their behalf.