Two Progressive Conservative MPPs who’ve in the past been skeptical of the proposed expansion of a landfill in Dresden, Ont. now both say they're okay with it, as long as the environment minister carries out his latest promises.
The Ford government’s legislation to cancel an environmental assessment stalling the controversial proposed expansion of a landfill in Dresden is currently being reviewed by a parliamentary committee. Instead of the assessment, Environment Minister Todd McCarthy promised the landfill would face “strong environmental oversight … (and) strict environmental scrutiny under the environmental compliance approval process,” as he said in the legislature on Monday.
Ernie Hardeman and Bob Bailey are longtime PC MPPs for largely rural southwestern Ontario ridings that are each within an hour’s drive of Dresden. Each expressed just over a year ago to the London Free Press that they were against the expansion of the landfill, which is just up the road from the heart of the 3,000-person community.
Now, they say they’re both on board with the plan, as long as it sticks to what McCarthy’s said.
“As the minister answered today in the house, there would be all kinds of environmental oversight on it (and) I think I trust the minister and that he’ll do what he said,” said Bailey, MPP for Sarnia—Lambton, on Monday.
“I stand with the position of the minister of the environment,” said Hardeman, MPP for Oxford. “He’s guaranteeing that he’s going to ensure that, moving forward, it’s going to meet standards that they have to follow, and so forth.”
Hardeman later added that he’s okay with the landfill’s expansion “as long as (McCarthy) can assure us that he’s putting all the protections in place.”
The position shared by Bailey and Hardeman is in contrast to the riding’s local MPP, their PC caucus colleague Steve Pinsonneault, who took the rare step of coming out publicly against legislation produced by the government he’s a member of.
“People are angry and, quite frankly, so am I. As a municipal councillor, I openly and publicly spoke against this landfill,” Pinsonneault said in a video posted to his Facebook page on May 16.
“As a candidate for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, I said I would work to get an environmental assessment in place and I did that. As you can understand, I’m very frustrated. … I do not support this landfill. I’ve personally spoken to the premier; I’ve personally spoken to the ministers. I’ve told them of the concerns of this landfill and I told them how I’m opposed to it,” he continued.
In the video, Pinsonneault said he had received “thousands of emails” and “hundreds of phone calls” about the landfill. He also said that “no matter how I vote, it’s not going to change the outcome,” given that the PCs control 80 of 124 seats at Queen’s Park.
“For an expansion to take place, the site will be subject to a strict environmental compliance process,” Pinsonneault said. “If Bill 5 passes, I can assure I will make sure every process is followed to the letter of the law. This is not a nice position that we have been put into. However, I will do the job that I was elected to do and make sure everything is done properly.”
The landfill site in question was purchased a few years ago by York1, a major Ontario-based construction, environmental services, and waste collection and disposal company. It has proposed a significant expansion of the site’s operations, which has faced intense local opposition.
Early last year, just before the byelection in the riding that Pinsonneault ran in, Premier Doug Ford’s government promised to conduct an environmental assessment of the site, which it said would shape any expansion. The move also effectively halted the project. Pinsonneault comfortably won the byelection and was re-elected in the general election earlier this year.
The legislation that would cancel the environmental assessment is Bill 5, one of the first pieces of legislation Ford’s PC government tabled since being re-elected.
The proposed U-turn on the Dresden landfill is unique within Bill 5, which otherwise is focused on creating new authority for the government to make it easier and faster to complete major projects in the province. Both parts have generated significant controversy at Queen’s Park.
Ontario’s integrity commissioner is currently considering whether to investigate multiple Ford government cabinet ministers over their ties to the owners of the Dresden landfill, in response to a request Liberal MPP Ted Hsu made based on The Trillium’s reporting.
In response to the controversy over its plan, York1 recently launched a website about its plans for the Dresden landfill, which it says will be transformed into a “regenerative recycling facility.”
A spokesperson for the company, Laryssa Waler, also affirmed in a statement on Monday that “the site will still be required to undergo strict environmental oversight including Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECA) under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA).”
