Heather Wright/The Independent

Ted Hsu wants to know why Dresden is the answer to Ontario’s waste problems.

The Liberal MPP from Kingston and the Islands has been asking some questions about why the Ford Government reneged on a planned Environmental Assessment for a project which will reactivate the former Dresden dump. He was in Dresden Friday night.

In June, the Ontario PC government passed the Unleashing the Economy Act. Part of the bill allowed York1 Environmental to move ahead with a plan to turn the former Dresden dump into a construction and soil waste recycling centre with a rebuilt 20-acre landfill without an Environmental Assessment. The province had promised that stringent review just before the byelection in Dresden’s riding. The PCs won the seat shortly after making the promise.

Hsu recently asked Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner to investigate any financial ties between Premier Doug Ford and three cabinet ministers to the owners of York1. The Commissioner declined to investigate saying the two newspaper articles Hsu submitted as evidence were not enough to open a probe.

But Hsu says there are still a lot of questions to be answered. He says it is clear there is a serious waste problem in the province since there is only capacity for 10 more years of waste in the province’s existing landfills.

“Why are you – Dresden – singled out in the government’s bill file?” he asked the crowd of about 40 people Friday.

“The government says, ‘we got to worry about waste.’ You know what? Over the next 10 years, we do have to worry about waste in Ontario. But how come there’s no plan? If we have a problem, we should have a plan.

“Why is it that the government says Dresden is the answer? What’s your plan? Show us why Dresden is the answer. Well, there’s no plan.”

That he says, leaves the government vulnerable to influence from people who can make money from the situation. It’s why Hsu wanted the Integrity Commissioner to investigate possible ties between York1 and the Ford government.

“There are hundreds of landfills in Ontario. There are hundreds of potential landfills sites. Why are we only talking about this? … The thing that scares me the most about not having a plan…, you tend to make mistakes in. But if you don’t have a plan, again, this is our political system, there are always people with money knocking down the door, and saying, ‘hey, you’ll tell you what to do.'”

Hsu told the crowd he was committed to talking about what is going on in Dresden across the province warning if it could happen in Dresden, it can happen in their hometown.

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