Imagine being a rural township and being faced with one of the largest planning applications ever seen anywhere in the world – and getting a yawn about concerns from a provincial cabinet minister.
That’s allegedly what happened to Mayor Bill Hill, of Melancthon Township, at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association when he met with Minister of Natural Resources Linda Jeffrey Feb. 28.
Hill promptly wrote a letter of protest to Premier Dalton McGuinty. His township has formally received an application for a gravel pit of nearly 2,400 acres, one of the largest in the world, that would be dug 200 feet below the water table. Hill’s township is the headwaters for the Grand, Nottawasaga, and several other rivers flowing into the Great Lakes.
“It is with considerable concern and disbelief with how Minister Jeffrey received our delegation that has prompted this letter of formal protest,” Hill wrote, noting the application will have an effect on over one million residents downstream of the pit.
He said the township’s carefully written submission was accepted by Jeffrey for information, “but we feel her comments and lukewarm attention to what was being relayed to her (the potential for catastrophic consequences to our small rural municipality) were indicative of the fact that our submission did not interest her whatsoever. In fact, the impression we got was that the ink was already on the rubber stamp.”
Hill told McGuinty that his council is determined to get a formal review of the application with the “most rigid standards available through proven science and technology.
Hill then took another swipe at Jeffrey’s attitude, noting that “After listening to our delegation, your minister offered the following: ‘It is too bad this has to split your community apart. It is your job to get your community together, get them to think long term about rehabilitation, because this will not be going back to agriculture, but maybe you could get a nice golf course.”
Hill said, “We were shocked and appalled by her comments.”
He also warned McGuinty, “Rest assured our residents and the citizens groups they have enlisted to halt this project will not be satisfied with that type of bland attitude towards their well being, exhibited by a minister of your government. As a council, we have to be open minded and objective and will be, but in the end, we must listen to the voices of the people we represent, and we are asking the same of you.”
Hill resubmitted to McGuinty the information he had passed along to Jeffrey, and added that local MPP Sylvia Jones would also be involved, with all that information being sent to her.
