Urgent action
Sign the Petition to Stop the Quarry Here
Queen’s Park Today | April 2, 2024
Quotation of the day
“I said it wasn’t going to happen, I’m going to keep my promise — it’s not going to happen.”
Premier Doug Ford assures Milton PC candidate Zee Hamid over dinner that the environmental assessment for the controversial Reid Road Reservoir Quarry is meaningless because he intends to quash the project regardless of the assessment’s outcome.
PCs vulnerable in Milton over broken promise to quash quarry
https://www.politicstoday.news/queens-park-today/
In 2020, Premier Doug Ford promised that the proposed Reid Road Reservoir Quarry in Campbellville would not go ahead due to steadfast opposition from many residents and the municipality.
“I believe in governing for the people and when the people don’t want something, you don’t do it,” Ford said during a June 2020 press conference. “It’s very simple. I know the mayor doesn’t want it. No one wants it. I don’t want it. We’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen one way or another.”
Milton residents have not forgotten that promise, and the quarry project now presents a potential problem for the PCs’ plans to keep the riding blue in the upcoming byelection.
Last Monday, Milton town council unanimously passed a motion calling on Ford to make good on his pledge and quash the project, which the municipality has opposed since its inception despite the project site being zoned for aggregate extraction and prior quarrying activity.
“This will have a major effect not just on the Campbellville area, but also neighbourhoods of Milton, … almost 25,000 people,” said councillor Colin Best, who is also president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. “This is an important byelection issue.”
Opponents of the project have cited concerns about dust, explosions and possible groundwater contamination since the proposed quarry would reach past the water table and require underwater blasting.
Instead of killing the project, the PC government released regulations in July 2021 requiring the project to undergo an environmental assessment (EA), as former Milton PC MPP Parm Gill requested in 2019. The assessment process launched in late 2023.
“I would say for the community's sake, and probably for [Milton PC candidate] Zee Hamid's sake … it really is time for the premier to keep his promise,” said Sharon Barkley of Action Milton, a community group organizing against the quarry. The group held a press conference at Queen’s Park on Thursday.
Hamid is a former city councillor who, by his own admission, voted against the project “several times” and remains opposed to it. After the council vote last week, Hamid was forced to explain to residents why Ford has not kept his promise.
At a town hall meeting hosted by Action Milton on Wednesday, Hamid assured dozens of attendees that the quarry project will not go ahead, regardless of the ongoing EA.
“Last night, I went with the premier for dinner and I asked him, ‘What do I tell them?’ And he said … ‘I’m going to keep my promise, it’s not going to happen,’” Hamid recalled at the meeting.
Hamid suggested the province must allow the EA process to run its course and he expects it will validate residents’ concerns about the project.
“Once that happens, the premier will put an end to this, just as he promised,” Hamid vowed.
Milton Liberal candidate Galen Naidoo Harris and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner also attended the meeting and argued that Ford would already have cancelled the project if the premier was serious about doing so.
“I do like to hear that Doug Ford remains committed to cancelling this project, but as far as I am concerned, the time for words is done, now it's time for action,” said Naidoo Harris.
Many attendees also wondered why the government would continue with an EA when the project’s fate has already been decided.
James Dick Construction Ltd., the quarry’s proponent, is also confused. In an email to Queen’s Park Today, vice-president Greg Sweetnam said Ford’s promise to reject their licence application “is certainly baffling to us.”
“There is definitely something weird going on,” said Sweetnam. “The premier making these declarations … is not normal. Our hope is that the government will be straight with us and allow us to have our process to get access to the provincially significant [aggregate] resource or — if that is not politically palatable — to compensate us so we can go somewhere else to get it.”
If the project is to be quashed, he added, it should be done sooner rather than later.
“We are all too busy to waste all of our time on this: industry, the public and the government. They should make up their mind.”
News Media
The Auditor General of Ontario’s “Value for Money Audit: Management of Aggregate Resources”
What’s at stake?
If Premier Ford’s Minister approves James Dick Construction Ltd.’s (JDCL) licence application for an underwater aggregate mine and asphalt re-processing plant in Campbellville there could be severe consequences for the community including:
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Blasting at the quarry could open pathways that allow surface toxins to contaminate groundwater.
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Blasting may also affect Milton’s Kelso wellsfield and private wells of local residents.
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Emissions from aggregate processing and asphalt re-processing could pollute the air with particulate matter. Particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) is known to cause respiratory issues, cancer, and heart attacks.
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Blasting could impact wildlife and provincially significantly wetlands
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Flyrock from blasting can cause property damage, personal injury or even death. Hwy 401 is only 100 metres from some of the blast areas.
- Gravel trucks could haul heavy loads on local roads every 2 minutes during peak times of the day.
Learn More
Visit the James Dick website to see detailed plans
Visit https://www.rrrqea.ca/ for James Dick’s information on the environmental assessment process
How you can help:
