London mayor doesn’t like Toronto’s garbage (but then again, who does?)

We’ll let the London Free Press explain:

Joe Fontana says he’ll contact Mayor Rob Ford to propose teaming up on a trash-to-energy plan at Green Lane landfill, where as of last week Toronto began sending its garbage.

Beyond any environmental benefits, Fontana is partly motivated by a concern Toronto may view London — not far from its new garbage dump — as a trash bin.

“(We) could turn it into a joint effort on renewable energy,” Fontana said during the weekend as the first trucks of Toronto trash started arriving at Green Lane. “Turn it into a positive.”

For readers who aren’t hip to the lingo, “trash-to-energy” is the latest rebranding effort for incineration. Fontana is the chair of GPEC Global, which sells incineration technology. Why the mayor thinks that building an incinerator in his backyard is going to be any prettier than the landfill Toronto already owns is anyone’s guess. This is why it’s always so silly for Toronto columnists to write that, when it comes to  landfill, Ontario has plenty of space. (That link goes to an old Marcus Gee column, but he’s hardly alone.) There are plenty of people around, too, and they don’t fancy living next to our garbage.

That said, some of Toronto’s conservatives have a history of supporting various “waste-to-energy” ideas, at least in theory. Back in 2007, Denzil Minnan-Wong lamented that Toronto was falling behind other cities by not investigating new technologies, and Minnan-Wong is pretty influential on the new council. Does that mean Fontana has a shot here? We still wouldn’t bet on it.

• Mayor aims at black eye [London Free Press]