Silver Donald Cameron says the best way for communities to guard against unwanted industrial activity is to democratically take matters into their own hands.

The author was one of the guest speakers at an information meeting Wednesday night in Stewiacke to discuss the pending proposal by Lafarge Canada to burn tires as fuel in the kiln at its Brookfield cement plant.

About 35 people gathered at the legion in Stewiacke for a meeting to discuss Lafarge Canada's plan to burn tires as fuel at its Brookfield cement plant. (Michael Gorman/CBC)

Noting that he was part of the effort in 2007 to prevent a similar proposal, Cameron said communities need to find permanent solutions to such challenges so they don't keep fighting the same battles.

"I just turned 80," he told the crowd of about 35 people at the local legion.

"I don't want to be back in this hall talking about it when I'm 90."

People arrive for the meeting Wednesday night at the Stewiacke legion. (Michael Gorman/CBC)

For Cameron, such battles are ones of democracy. For communities to avoid having decisions handed down from elsewhere, such as the province, he said one of the best opportunities to assert local authority is through municipal bylaws.

If a community bans a practice, he noted, it makes companies less inclined to pursue an activity in that area because of the added bureaucratic hurdles to clear.

Other speakers included representatives from Citizens Against Burning of Tires, the Ecology Action Centre and Halifax C & D Recycling Ltd., which until recently had the contract to process all of the used tires in the province. They now get 70 per cent of the tires, with Lafarge getting the other 30 per cent.

Mike Chassie of Halifax C & D Recycling explained to the meeting the process his company uses to make aggregate from old tires. (Michael Gorman/CBC)

Halifax C & D vice-president Mike Chassie told the meeting there is plenty of demand for the aggregate his company produces from the used passenger tires.

In fact, he said, there's enough demand that the company is now pursuing access to other tires, such as the large tires used on mining vehicles.

Chassie said the used tire market in Nova Scotia is simply too small for it to be split between multiple players.

'Very disappointed'

Fred Blois said people in his community of Clifton, west of Truro, are mixed over the proposal from Lafarge.

Blois was opposed to the project last time and noted one of the group's key supporters in 2007 was Liberal MLA Keith Colwell. Colwell did a lot at the time as a member of the opposition, but things seem to have changed, said Blois.

"I don't know where the hell Keith is this time," said Blois. "He's a member of the Liberal cabinet [and has] a lot of influence, but he's not helping us this time. We're very disappointed with the Liberal [position] at this point in time on tire burning."