TORONTO MAYOR ASKS FOR HELP IN GARBAGE TRUCKING DISPUTE

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TORONTO, Ont. — Mel Lastman, the mayor of Toronto, has asked George Bush, the U.S. President, to help force the State of Michigan to accept truck shipments of the city’s trash.

Last fall, Toronto signed a five-year, multi-billion dollar contract to ship its waste to Carleton Farms landfill, in Wayne County, Mich.

That deal was closed after a previous arrangement to send the trash by train to an abandoned mine in Northern Ontario fell through for financial reasons.

However since the Michigan plan was put to paper, everyone from city mayors along the Hwy. 401 corridor to Michigan Governor John Engler have expressed their objection to the contract.

The contract is slated to start in 2002, after Toronto’s current landfill reaches capacity.

“The State of Michigan cannot legally stop commerce in solid waste under both the U.S. Constitution and international trade law,” Lastman wrote in the letter to the president.

Lastman noted that “Michigan recently learned this lesson from the U.S. Supreme Court,” in reference to a 1992 ruling striking down a Michigan law that imposed limits on the amount of trash in landfills.

“Perhaps Governor Engler needs to be reminded of this lesson — just as he needs to be reminded that the people of Michigan need jobs, not politicians attempting to overturn well-established constitutional and international trade law principles,” Lastman wrote to Bush.

Wilson Logistics holds the sub-contract for providing the trucking service.

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