NEWS JOE SHAPIRO PASSES INDUSTRY O Rhetoric heating up in battle over Xinyi float glass plant X inyi Canada’s proposal to build a $400 million float glass plant in Stratford, Ont., is on indefinite hold following delays by city council to vote on a cost-sharing agreement, according to reports from multiple news outlets. Stratford council claims the Ontario COVID lockdown is somehow interfer-ing with its ability to make a decision. The proposal has met opposition from residents concerned about the plant’s environmental impact and the zoning process. A prominent musician is leading the charge against the pro-posal. This is Xinyi’s second attempt to make a deal with a southern Ontario municipality to locate 300 jobs in the province. Guelph, Ont., rejected Xinyi’s proposal in 2018 on the grounds the plant would use too much groundwater. Frank Fulton had some choice words about that one in his October 2018 column titled “And there they were...gone.” Fulton pointed out that the sole substantive objection to the plant locating in Guelph was over water use, but that the projected water use for the Xinyi plant was still below the threshold defined by the province as “dry in-6 February 2021 | GLASS CANADA dustrial” and was less than other industries in the area use, such as Nestle Waters Canada. Fulton criticized Guelph council’s decision as a cave-in to NIMBYism. NIMBYism would appear to be back in the case of the Stratford proposal. Xinyi says its proposed plant meets all relevant environmental regulations. The proposal has even received a grant from Environment Canada to fund its energy-efficient heat recycling system. Now, a CBC report by Colin Butler quotes Xinyi project manager, Chris Pidgeon, calling opposition groups looking to block the proposal “elitist” and “prejudiced,” suggesting anti-Chinese sentiment could be behind the continued opposition. He points to calls by Get Con-cerned Canada (a lobby group formed for the purpose of opposing the project) to have the area’s local Conservative MP question the Liberal government in Ottawa about Xinyi’s links to the Chinese government. GCC denied any bias and called Pidgeon’s com-ments “offensive” and “terrible.” Look for a full technical review of the Xinyi proposal in the April issue of Glass Canada. • n Dec. 22, 2020, indus-try veteran Joe Shapiro passed away at Sunnybrook Veteran’s Centre at the age of 97. Frank Fulton, president of Fultech Fenestration Consult-ing, notes, “Joe Shapiro was one of the pioneers – and one of the characters – in the glass business. He was a co-found-er of Sealite Glass with Fred Fulton in the late 1950’s, one of the first independent small businesses manufacturing the new insulating glass units at the time. After Sealite Glass was sold to Glaverbel Glass, Joe started and operated Air-lite Glass for many years.” Joe was the beloved husband of Shirley Shapiro; loving father and father-in-law of Neil and Dee and Michael and Deb-bie. Dear brother of Bernie and the late Freda Bernstein, Hilda Caplan, and Lou Shapiro. Devoted grandfather of Jared and Shelby, Lorraine and Jon, Daniel and Rachel, Zak, and Kyle. Devoted great-grandfa-ther of Noah, and Benjamin. A graveside service was held on Dec. 23.
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