Mt. Uniacke Quarry Expansion Project (from 4ha - 40ha) - PART 3 of 6

CONCERNING the MAY 10th OPEN 'Public House' hosted by NCCI at the Mount Uniacke FireHall from 6 - 8pm

It was, by all accounts, a useless and disorganized public event. Mr. Rodgers himself arrived later than some of his company's reps. There were very few chairs for folks to sit on, (despite the venue having many available for large turn-outs). But in light of how little effort NCCI put into notifying the public of Mount Uniacke, that is understandable. Clearly they expected none-to-few visitors. As it turned out, thanks to the quick efforts of some area residents, (no applause goes to NCCI) approximately 100 folks, in all, did turn out. NCCI's lack-lustre attempt to notify the public would explain why they had no organized plan in place to introduce themselves to those who did attend. This set the tone for the two hour meet. There was no opportunity provided to those interested to ask questions and receive answers. NCCI had a few posters laid out for folks to view. That was it! There were no hand-outs you could take with you for information. As a matter of fact, one of our own area residents had put a lot of work into doing up some hand-outs for folks which were handed out to them as they arrived. There was an amount of them left over which had been left on a table for others in the Community to find. One of the NCCI reps found them and not only discarded them in the trash but ensured they were ripped up beforehand, rendering them unusable. That was a nasty business tactic.

Mr. Rodgers and his people didn't engage with those who turned out 'at all'. Community folks were basically sitting and talking amongst themselves because of the lack of structure to the meet. Of course, this put folks off and frustrated that they'd wasted their time. Many left in frustration (disgusted with more bad PR) with what they've come to expect from Mr. Rodgers and NCCI. Those that hung on and attempted to engage, found Mr. Rodgers' stance to be defensive and aggressive.

The Officials of NSE and other levels of Government reading this need to know, to reference the NSE's own virtues of a good CLC, nothing about the "Open House" public info session held by NCCI was designed to either foster good public relations or to prove environmental stewardship, nor did it act as a vehicle for transparency and ongoing communications between community, stakeholders and the proponent.

Mr. Rodgers may claim to be puzzled as to why the Community of Mount Uniacke doesn't embrace his industrial activity, him or his company with welcoming arms! We believe we've just provided a very good example. No different than what the community experienced with this company in 2014-2015.

But, now the officials of NSE and others know that this particular "box" should not be accepted as checked, as the requirement has been far from satisfied. To accept it would be doing a huge disservice to the public of Mount Uniacke.

Our FIRST "ask" is that NSE direct the proponent (NCCI) to hold a second, properly-planned and organized Q&A Session with the public of Mount Uniacke and other stakeholders, ASAP!. Properly advertised in the Uniacke Newsletter and notices throughout the Community (Post Office, Firehall, Churches, Key Businesses)

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We understand, as part of NCCI's registration process, in the Overview, it states under minimum requirements (among other things) that the proponent must provide :

- all steps taken or proposed by the proponent to identify and address the concerns of the list of all concerns regarding the undertaking expressed by the public and aboriginal *personal vehicles and homes being laden with heavy road and quarry dust "constantly" in the warmer, drier months *cannot open windows to let a nice breeze through their homes *forced to wash their windows weekly (people shouldn't feel the need to have to wash their windows weekly in order to see through them - some are not physically able to) *forced to use dryers for laundry when folks would rather hang out on a line in better weather and save a few dollars on their energy bills (who's picking up the extra tab on power used year round for that?) but they can't - who'd want to bring in clean clothes covered in road dust? *can't sit outside and enjoy a beautiful weather day, especially if that person already has a respiratory illness (some do) *not to mention what's most likely being drawn into their home's air through their HVAC systems *information directly from current CLC members regarding few to no meeting dates planned, being cancelled last minute and/or being held with only one member, besides Mr. Rodgers in attendance

Mount Uniacke public wouldn't know who to contact should they have a concern to relay to the CLC for a next meet, as NCCI doesn't make it known to the public through an "appropriate manner" who the CLC members are or how to contact them. It's unlikely there wouldn't have been changes to CLC members over the past seven years - yet the public was never made aware of any changes to members.

Mount Uniacke public has never been made aware of any issues discussed at any CLC meetings held. It has been confirmed that NCCI has not made any submissions to the only local publishing available to them, the Uniacke Newsletter! This would be the only 'appropriate manner' to represent community interest by providing an avenue for the mutual exchange - "Notice of the CLC formation, its members, any changes to members, as well as views of the CLC must be made known to the residents of the affected area by the proponent in an appropriate manner" to provide a forum whereby the residents can bring any issues of public concern related to CLC objectives. Mandate and membership composition should be reviewed annually by its members with the proponent consenting to any change in the composition of the CLC. Records of CLC meetings and outcomes should be kept by the committee for the Iife of the CLC.

Public and Aboriginal people "how could NCCI provide NSE with this information" when they took "no steps" other than what was described above and even in those steps they failed miserably?

People - *again, as stated above - NCCI did NOT invite any community members to discuss their concerns so they may provide answers to those concerns or so that they would have a list of concerns to provide NSE along with their application.

We propose to the decision-makers of NSE receiving this letter of our concerns, that it is very clear to the Community of Mount Uniacke, as we are certain it must now be clear to you, that NCCI proposed to hold a public "open house" forum with none, or very few, in attendance - for the "sole" purpose "ONLY" of being able to check an "appropriate box" on their application to NSE.

Which brings us to asking the question that begs to be asked by anyone - "Why is it that NSE's own criteria requires so little of the proponents? and so much of the affected public?" Again,to our aforementioned points made - it appears to so many, that the entire process of registering these industrial activities is set up for the approvals and wins of the proponents, and the failures of communities and its taxpayers!

Part 3 (go to Part 4)