Farmland conversion and landfill sites

[danbrotherston]

Once again, I am reserving judgement until we find out what this land grab is actually for.

As for the toxic chemicals claim, some things are a bit messier than sterile tech jobs and Canadian industry has done an above average job at keeping manufacturing pretty clean over time. There are costs to making things in the real world..

Probably things have gotten better over time, but the sites where factories are in the downtown are still dealing with the contamination from factories.

I do not believe we are less short sighted now, there are somewhat stronger regulations, but nothing like what ijmorlan suggests.

I think the fundamental problem is that there is profit motive, and very little chance of getting caught (or even knowing) about this kind of thing. We put tanks of gasoline in the ground at gas stations, we know they will leak over time, and yet we don't have a government mandated process for ensuring that they are not allowed to leak. Yes, we've added regulation around limiting the leaks by improving design, but nothing is forever, without a requirement for active management, we know this kind of thing will always lead to contamination. To say nothing of stations that are left abandoned by companies which no longer see value in operating them.