Heather Wright/The Independent

York1 Environmental officials say it will likely take a year to get the approvals it needs to begin work on the construction recycling facility in Dresden.

That as the provincial government pushes to pass a bill which removes the requirement for an Environmental Assessment on the Irish School Road property, south of the Lambton County line, by the end of this week.

In Queen’s Park Tuesday, Both MPPs from Lambton were absent as the Ontario government agreed to fast track its controversial Unleashing the Economy Act legislation – Bill 5. Government House Leader Steve Clark asked the legislature to limit debate on Bill 5 to 12 hours at the committee level Tuesday and return it to the legislature Wednesday for a final vote. Conservative majority easily passed the changes 71-42.

Neither Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP Steve Pinsonneault, who represents Dresden, nor Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey were in the house for the bill and did not register a vote for or against the compressed time frame.

Premier Doug Ford, fresh of his trip to Alberta for the Premier’s Conference, was sitting on the front row supporting the limited debate on the bill which puts an end to the Environmental Assessment for a regenerative recycling project at the Dresden dump.

For a week, The Independent has been asking Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks what the next steps for York1 would be when Bill 5 passes. We wanted to know if the company would have to start the process to amend the former dump’s approvals under the Environmental Compliance Approval regime over again. 

York1 started amending old ECAs after it purchased the property in 2022. The process was stalled when a public outcry about the landfill and recycling centre which could attract up to 700 trucks a day, less than a kilometre from Dresden.

The province, under pressure from citizens and politicians in Chatham-Kent and Lambton, ordered the project be subject to a full Environmental Assessment – a process that takes years. But Bill 5 is likely to change that. A clause of the massive Unleashing the Economy Act includes removing the requirement for the EA.

Laryssa Waler, spokesperson for York1, says it’s not clear yet what the process will be should Bill 5 pass and the project move ahead.

“The ECA amendment process will be determined by the MECP,” said Waler via email adding “the path forward is currently is uncertain.”

York1 had filed three separate amendments to the original ECAs at the Dresden site and dated back to the 1990s. There were two amendments for comment on the landfill and waste portion of the project and another on a storm water management plan which York1 submitted to the MECP in 2023. All three had been on the Environmental Registry. All were cancelled when the province passed legislation requiring the full Environmental Assessment.

Waler says it is likely York1 will have to start the ECA process from the beginning.

The company has not yet been in contact with MECP to see how to proceed, but Waler expects the new ECA process would take about a year to complete for the construction and soil waste recycling project and slightly longer for the company’s plan to request to completely rebuild the former fly ash dump at the site.

Once the approvals are in place, the company could begin construction. “Several factors could affect the (timing of the) construction phase, but it should typically take one year also,” she said.

The Independent also posed six questions about the way forward after Bill 5 to officials from the Ministry of the Environment and the local MPPs. 

MECP spokesperson Alexandru Cioban answered via email; “Ontario exports nearly 40 per cent of its waste to the United States and it is anticipated our landfills, as they stand, will be full within the next decade. 

“The York 1 waste project, located just outside of Dresden, is the landfill that can mobilize the quickest to increase internal waste management capacity to ensure long-term stability and reduce reliance on international systems, as it already has waste permissions and is not considered a new landfill. We have been clear, the project will still undergo extensive environmental processes and remain subject to strong provincial oversight and other regulatory requirements, including Environmental Compliance Approvals under the Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Water Resources Act.”

Three further emails attempting to get the answer to the original questions were not answered by press time.