I'm reaching out as a concerned citizen wondering if you will be doing a story on the discovery of the remnants, rubble, and garbage on the site of the former Royal Hotel and possibly other sites on River St.
These buildings were demolished not long ago in 2010 with the cities oversite and approval but it seems a city with an already shakey track record for waste disposal has done it again.
The recent demolition of the building with the "merchant" sign revealed a large amount of waste in the adjacent site that the city had not properly disposed of in years prior and instead elected to bury the evidence.
Now, according to the city's own bylaw "The Building Bylaw No.5524 section 8.5 " Disposal Site for Demolition Material and Refuse" Except as per 8.6, pursuant to the Municipal Refuse Management Regulations, the Waste Management Regulations and the City’s Waste Collection and Disposal Bylaw, all Demolition material and other refuse generated from the Demolition of any building or Structure within the City shall be disposed of at the City’s Landfill Site.
Those sites are thus all contaminated with garbage and were sold without the purchasers being aware, and I can only assume a city that wishes to push the development of its downtown core would like to dispose of their "little" mistake themselves and not put this onto the developers. I also assume they would very much like for this to not be widely known to the public.
Marshall Shenner
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
