  The Red Box Sue Ann Levy's column caught my eye this morning. Forgive me, but I'm going to put the whole megillah here, because the Sun doesn't archive it's content... Bordering on trouble City's trash trucks face U.S. tie-ups By SUE-ANN LEVY -- Toronto Sun With the New Year's bloom barely off the rose, one hates to engage in more security hysteria. Heaven knows we've heard plenty over the past few days about the heightened "orange" terror alert in the U.S. and cancelled international air flights. But let's not forget that - for better or for worse - up to 140 trucks take Toronto's garbage down Hwy. 401 each day to Michigan's Carleton Farms landfill site, located about one-half hour south of Detroit. Those trucks - which carry about 22,000 tonnes of waste each week during the winter months - cross at the busy Michigan border points of Windsor and Sarnia.
With reports of border patrols being beefed up in the past month, what does that mean for Toronto's trash? Angelos Bacopoulos, the city's general manager of solid waste management, told me yesterday "no doubt" there's a concern about the trash trucks making it across the border in a timely fashion. He says the only reason they're not yet feeling the impact is that traditionally the amount of waste is down from January to mid-March compared to the busy spring and fall - which translates to 120-130 fewer truckloads per week. "We certainly do have concerns," he said, noting last year with far less scrutiny they "struggled" during the peak periods to get the trash over the border on time. "We understand the threats are to a great extent political posturing but we are taking them very seriously," adds new works committee chairman Jane Pitfield. There's so much concern that Bacopoulos, policy and planning director Geoff Rathbone and Pitfield are travelling to Michigan tomorrow to meet with four officials from the state's department of environmental quality and a representative of the governor's office.
Update required Rathbone says they've been asked to provide an update on Toronto's long-term waste diversion efforts and how the city is managing to keep hazardous materials out of the trucked trash. The Michigan people will also be giving our officials an update on the legislative situation there. Now, I hate to sound less than fawning but prior to the election our new mayor didn't have much of a garbage platform - except to ask people to recycle more and to explore new and emerging technologies. He openly derided his closest rival John Tory for daring to suggest state-of-the-art incineration, a proven technology being used in many European cities. The city's green bin composting program will be rolled out throughout the city this year and Pitfield is determined to ramp up recycling efforts in apartment buildings. But Bacopoulos says the very earliest any kind of full-fledged emerging technology plant could be up and running is 2008 or 2009.
And in the demonstration phase, a plant would at the most divert 25,000 tonnes of Toronto garbage a year. Asked about incineration, he said it's a "proven" technology and if officials "could navigate through the public approvals" it would take less time to get a plant up and running. COMRADES-IN-ARMS: You just have to read the latest CUPE 79 newsletter to understand the tight ties between new Mayor David Miller and his CUPE brothers and sisters. And what price, in my view, he will pay for that coziness. In a glowing report, president Ann Dembinski talks about how much Miller appreciates their hard work and what "great news" his win as mayor is for her local. She makes no bones about how "actively involved" CUPE 79 was in that election.
"We organized phone banks to support David ... many of our members worked on election campaigns, devoting their time and energy to get David and union endorsed councillors elected," she writes. There's no question Dembinski and Co. are expecting a big return on their investment. As she continues: "We are hopeful that with a new Council and with David Miller as mayor, we will find a more receptive and cooperative mood at City Hall. " Hmmm. I always felt the last, more right-of-centre council kowtowed to the powerful CUPE unions. Just how much more co-operative can this new left-leaning bunch be without breaking the bank?
Will the union be just as "receptive" to the city's fiscal woes and offer up $75 million in efficiencies? Nah. You can forget that. Wow. Boy that's really something eh? All those unions and stuff....
Weren't we talking about border security measures, and a garbage crisis a few seconds ago? Ms. Levy never misses an opportunity to seethe about the City's unions, and when an opportunity doesn't present itself, it seems she just shoves it in at the end of a column. Was the topic too thin? I mean, is the fact that Canada's largest city on the verge of a major environmental crisis too boring of a topic for Ms. Levy? Did she feel the need to punch it up a little, with some juicy bits about unions? Just a little focus, that's all I'm asking for.
Maybe she's got that urlLink Adult ADD I keep hearing about.... 
