EA Before ARA - NDACT Tells MOE

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Published on Thursday, 05 April 2012 14:01

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In a letter to Minister of Environment Jim Bradley, Iler Campbell, NDACT's lawyer states, " an environmental assessment is required before any further steps in ARA application".

Read the letter to the MOE, dated March 21, 2012

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Mega Quarry letter to Premier McGuinty

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Published on Tuesday, 03 April 2012 13:27

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John Gruetzner, President of the Simcoe-Grey Federal Liberal Riding Association wrote:

The most immediate of our policy suggestions is:

The Province of Ontario cancel Highland’s plan to develop the Mega-Quarry.

A second but less attractive decision is to place a moratorium on a review of the application until 2025 to permit the formation and implementation of a sustainable aggregative strategy for Ontario to be in place.

The risks associated with the Mega-Quarry to the ground water compared to the benefits simply do not warrant this project being developed at this point in time. We hope, as a fellow Liberal and our Premier, that you share this view.

Read the entire letter.

Posted April 3, 2012 in http://simcoe-grey.liberal.ca

Peace and Justice

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Published on Wednesday, 26 October 2011 11:50

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Statement of Objection by:

Northern Waters Presbytery Peace and Justice Circle, presented at their Toronto Conference, September 2011

http://www.torontoconference.ca/northernwaters/downloads/peace-and-justice-quarry-letter.pdf

Canadian Federation of Students Objection Letter

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Published on Tuesday, 25 October 2011 12:41

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I am writing on behalf of 300,00 college and university students who are members of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario to express concern over the proposed creation of a 2,400 acre quarry in Dufferin County.

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Response to John Lowndes, "An Update on the Proposed Melancthon Quarry"

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Published on Sunday, 11 September 2011 14:56

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"I believe Mr. Lowndes statement required a response, especially by someone who is a resident of the area and a citizen of Canada."

Tony Howard's response to John Lowndes' “Update on the proposed Melancthon Quarry”. Click here to view John Lowndes' statement.

Tony Howard wrote:

Dear John,

I feel compelled to respond to your recent somewhat provocative open statement “An update on the proposed Melancthon Quarry”  since I am among ‘some’ members of the community who have concerns. I would be interested to hear your definition of ‘some’ since I would suggest ‘a majority’ and at least the number who have made the effort to file letters. ‘Some’, then, is at least 3,735 by your count, and for every letter submitted I would offer that there are at least 3 more who, for whatever reason, didn’t, but harbour concerns, so we’re talking circa 15,000. And then there’s the 130,000 or so who responded to the AVAAZ appeal. So in your eyes a ‘small some’ perhaps, but in others a ‘large some’!

My, along with others,  concerns are many, but the prime three are associated with water, and whilst I cannot but be impressed, not necessarily favourably, by your company’s position and commitment to comply with undertaking consideration of every issue raised in the Environmental Bill of Rights and other requirements of the present Agricultural Resources Act, which I believe is inadequate to address a project of the size and complexity you are proposing, and so I, along with others, are extremely pleased by the current Ontario government’s decision to invoke a full Environmental Assessment, and one would hope it’s for the right reason. But this is what this project required, and, I would suggest, even further intense third party scrutiny. I have absolutely no aspirations for Melancthon and Mulmur to become mining townships.

Regardless of the foregoing, I do not believe the Highland Company can offer the following unconditional guarantee:- that during the  lifetime of quarry operation, and for as long as the water evacuation pumps require to be operational, the water table will not be significantly lowered, the adequacy of supply will not be compromised and your company will not contaminate the water supply making it unfit for consumption by all life forms.

If Highland’s operations  did poison the water supply it could affect and ruin,  by some estimates, millions of people, as well as animals and plant life. It would, in fact, make a large area uninhabitable. There is absolutely no room here for error and no amount of studies and expert opinions, or ‘we should have’, will compensate if it happened. One recent analogous event many people will recall is the BP oil well incident in the Gulf of Mexico, this not only affected aquatic and bird life, but also had a disastrous  effect on business activities. Luckily, however, it did not go as far as poisoning the potable water supply.  Please don’t offer the response as posted on the Highland’s website in regard to water, that is unacceptable.

How you acquired the land and what you told land owners at the time and subsequently is history, but reflects on how people now see you, your company and the financial backers you are associated with.

The paragraph about farming the land, being part of the community since 2006, makes me grimace, since the key sentence is “our plans have evolved over time as we learn more about our properties”. There is a suspicion you were aware you wanted to mine the limestone from the outset, and also a view that if there is a way for Highland  to quarry beyond the 2,300 acres currently in the Application to take advantage of your full land holdings  you will attempt to do it.  I wonder though, John, whether you would care to become a real part of the community and elect to reside in Melancthon, on the land your firm has acquired and then see whether you’d like to live next to a proposed quarry of such size with all its sights, sounds, poor air quality and increased truck traffic and threat to the potable water supply.  

I cannot disagree that we need a continuing supply of aggregate in Ontario. We’re all capable of reading the relatively recent State of the Aggregate Resource in Ontario Study(SAROS), but we have to be smarter about it. Mega-quarries in communities such as in Headwaters are not the answer. When it comes to husbanding and nurturing our resources, whatever they may be, Canada doesn’t have a stellar reputation.  I do not share your belief that the Melancthon Quarry is an important long term resource for the Province or  an important long term development for the local community unless you believe in rape of prime agricultural land and removing it from productive use, plundering by foreigners of so called resources, engaging in high risk practices that could totally compromise the security, reliability, adequacy, and quality of the water supply for millions of people. Is this the legacy you wish to leave the people of this area and the province, together with their children and their children and on into the future?

By the way, John, the storage buildings, including the one under completion at this time on the 20^th Sideroad of Melancthon could make good host sites for a roof mounted solar PV system providing you some additional revenue for 20 years under the Feed in Tariff program, enhancing your green image and contributing towards your energy and carbon neutral stance.

I would appreciate the courtesy of a reply.

Yours sincerely

Anthony H. Howard

34 year resident of the Headwaters Region

24 year resident of Dufferin County (Mulmur/Mono)

Contributor to some of Canada’s real achievements (think Canadarm)

RR#4

Shelburne

ON L0N 1S8    

CC:  Baupost Corp. – Seth Klarman

Moreen Miller – Ontario Sand, Gravel and Aggregate Association

Federal government

The Hon. Stephen Harper

Minister Environment:  The Hon. Peter Kent

Minister of Agriculture: The Hon. Gerry Ritz

Minister of Natural Resources: The Hon. Joe Oliver

Minister of Industry: The Hon. Christian Paradis

David Tilson. MP Dufferin -Caledon

The Hon. Bob Rae – Liberal Party of Canada

The Hon. Nycole Turmel – NDP Party of Canada

Elizabeth May – Green Party of Canada

Provincial government

Premier Dalton MacGuinty

Minister of Natural Resources: Linda Jefferies

Minister of Environment: John Wilkinson

Minister of Industry: Sandra Pupatello

Minister of Energy and Infrastructure: Brad Duguid

Sylvia Jones – MPP Dufferin-Caledon

Jim Wilson – MPP Simcoe

Tim Hudak – Leader Ontario PC

Andrea Horvath – Leader Ontario NDP

Lori Holloway – Candidate Dufferin – Caledon Ontario Liberal Party

Rob Strang – Candidate Dufferin-Caledon Ontario Green Party

Municipal government

Warren Maycock -Warden of County of Dufferin

Mayors of Melancthon, Mulmur, Mono, Amaranth, East Luther Grand Valley, Shelburne, Orangeville

Council of Canadians

First Nations

David Suzuki Foundation

Sierra Club

World Wildlife Foundation

Bruce Trail Association

Greater Dufferin Area Chamber of Commerce

NDACT

CAUSE

Dr. Roberta Bondar

Dr. Ron Dembo

Michael de Pensier