Garbage for Sale

I was reading CBC today and came across this. Its not a new issue or anything; basically Toronto is out of economically feasible ways to dispose of its garbage (yet they spend millions to KEEP the Maple Leafs if you can believe it) so they ship it across the border to Canada.

Now, not even on the grounds of the minor issues like the traffic on the 401/402 corridor between Toronto and the crossing points at Sarnia and Windsor, this just seems ridiculous to me, and I completely understand the point of view of the border cities, and the States. It is quite literally shipping our garbage off for someone else to deal with, tell me how this is fair? Of course money has that habit of making the world go around, but honestly, from a Canadian perspective, should we not figure out how to deal with our own crap? Its perfectly acceptable for us to ship our garbage to the States, but deny them some of our water supply which is another back burner point of contention right now? And on top of this, taking the money outside of Canada to accomplish the task? Maybe I'm wrong, but I would tend to think that doing the research necessary and opening up disposal sites within Canada would create jobs, thus helping our own economy, and be a nice step for individualization of Canada from the United States.

Now I brought up the topic of water trade to the States, and while I agree with the stand Canada has taken at present not to share our large amounts of freshwater, I think a recent movement by the Great Lakes bordering states and provinces to 'lend' out water on the principle that all the water is returned to the basin, properly treated, is an excellent start to something. When the need comes, Canada could 'rent' water out, with the assurance that equal volumes would be returned to our own lake and groundwater systems. But the exchange of water and garbage are two entirely different entities...no-one NEEDS garbage, and all the problems that tend to go with it. That being said, I think Canada needs to deal with its problems on its own, and not simply dump them off to the lowest bidder for convenience sake.

Read about the Great Lakes diversion policy here.