Cites landfill shortage, US tariff threats

Proposal on Environmental Registry calls for a larger landfill than York1 first proposed

Heather Wright/The Independent

There is shock in Dresden after the provincial government dropped a bomb shell heading into the long weekend.

Saying the threat of US tariffs is threatening Ontario’s waste sector, the province has launched legislation to remove the environmental assessment requirements of the York1 Waste Project.

It’s part of the Doug Ford government’s new Protecting Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act.

The province dumped seven new proposals on the Environmental Registry of Ontario late Thursday.

The posting on the York1 Environmental project says the proposed act would cancel “Ontario Regulation 284/24 designating Chatham-Kent Waste Disposal Site and removing environmental assessment (EA) requirements for York1 Environmental Waste Solutions Ltd.’s proposal to resume landfill operations and expand waste handling, processing, and transfer operations at the former Dresden Tile Yard, in Chatham-Kent.”

That legislation was passed last year after a community outcry after the Mississauga waste company unveiled its plan for the site less than a kilometre from Dresden.

York1 said at the time, about 20 acres of the 85-acre property was approved in the past as a landfill. The company, which has owned the property since 2022, wants to expand that, bringing up to 6,000 tonnes of waste a day from construction and demolition sites and soils to be either recycled or landfilled. That could mean up to 700 trucks a day, according to the York1 plan, making the Dresden dump larger than Twin Creeks in Watford. The Dresden operation, the original proposal said, would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In February 2024, the company tried to go through the less-stringent Environmental Compliance Approval process, but a community outcry heading into a by-election in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, led to the province promising an Environmental Assessment on the land.

“This site was established over 40 years ago, prior to Ontario’s requirement that landfills undergo an Environmental Assessment. In keeping with the process that any other landfill would be required to undergo today, I will be taking steps to require this project to complete a comprehensive Environmental Assessment under the Environmental Assessment Act,” said Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Andrea Khanjin at that time.

“This would require this site to address local community concerns and mitigate potential impacts before it could open.”

The EA process can take up to 10 years to complete.

Fast-forward 10 months from when the province approved the Environmental Assessment, and it appears the Ford Government believes the conditions have changed. For years, the waste industry has been sounding the alarm bells saying Ontario is rapidly running out of landfill space. It’s estimated without new landfill developments, the province will be out landfill space in 7 to 10 years.

Right now, 3.3 million tonnes of Ontario waste goes to the US – the vast majority to Michigan – each year.

With the US president levying tariffs on all kinds of products, the Ford Government appears to be concerned about the possibility of the waste industry being hit by tariffs as well. The Environmental Registry of Ontario posting says the move is “to help provide additional waste capacity in Ontario due to the threat of US tariffs impacting Ontario’s waste sector.”

The posting on the Environmental Registry of Ontario says the project will move back to the Environmental Compliance Approvals process which has far less public input and requires fewer studies.

“The project will remain subject to strong provincial oversight and other regulatory requirements including Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECA) under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA),” says the posting.  

And under the outline for the proposal, it appears the footprint of the landfill will increase from 20 acres to 25 acres.

Dave and Sheri Willson live across the road from the dump. They were given the news by The Independent. “Honestly, I’m kind of in awe. I’m in shock right now,” said Dave after hearing the news. “You know what this is? This is just the golden egg for them.

“I’ll be reaching out (to York1). I’m going to be a thorn in their ass. If this goes through, my property value just tanked.”

Dawn-Euphemia borders the land owned by York1 Environmental. The company’s trucks would have to travel the township’s roads to get to the site. Mayor Al Broad had no indication the government was about to change course on the York1 project adding he had not heard from the local MPP about the plan.

Broad only had the details provided in the Environmental Registry of Ontario posting and The Independent about the changes and said he was not “a happy camper” about the move.

Chatham-Kent Councillor Rhonda Jubenville, who represents Dresden, was blunt. “I’ve seen that campaign and party donors of Doug Ford and the PCs are the executives and owners of York1, so, I mean, it just reeks,” she says.

“I think it’s pretty shady and very environmentally irresponsible,” she says.

“I think he’s using the the Trump tariff war as a guise to push this through. I think this has all been orchestrated, but I have nothing obviously to substantiate that, other than my own intuition and it’s just wrong. It’s wrong.”

CK Mayor Darrin Canniff was not available to comment on the turn of events, but the municipality did say in a news release that it is prepared to fight this waste facility proposal with the expert lawyers and engineers which have already been retained.

“I would like to make it very clear: myself, council, and the community of Chatham-Kent will continue fight with every tool available to us against both the new legislative direction and the proposed waste facility,” Canniff is quoted as saying in the news release.

Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP Steve Pinsonneault, who was reelected in the Feb. 27 vote which gave the Ford government another majority government, has not responded to The Independent’s request for comment.

Residents have 30 days to respond to the proposal listed on the Environmental Registry of Ontario. You can find it here:

https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/025-0389