Heather Wright/The Independent

York 1 Environmental Services is hiring staff for it’s controversial Dresden facility and planning for a meeting with municipal leaders.

The Mississauga company has plans to turn the former dump site into a modern landfill and construction and soil waste recycling centre.

Community members have been fighting to stop the project along the banks of Molly’s Creek, less than one kilometre from Dresden, from moving forward. But they’ve been dealt several blows in the past year – first, when the Ford government reneged on a promise to force the company to do an in depth Environmental Assessment of the project and then when the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada president suggested just last week that a federal probe of the plans wasn’t necessary.

The IAAC in its advice to the federal environment minister said there were enough provincial regulations in place to deal with concerns about the potential damage to waterways, species at risk and to ensure Indigenous people are consulted on the project. The Environment Minister is likely to provide his answer about a federal investigation by the end of November.

Now, York1’s website lists three job opportunities in Dresden including an excavator operator, a traffic control sale house operator, and a wheel loader operator who would act as a supervisor for between two and three people, according to the company.

Officials have said in the past they plan to prepare the site for several months with no new material brought in, stored on, or land-filled at the property. York1 plans to operate the site under the existing non-amended ECA for waste transfer and processing operating as the previous operator Waste Wood Disposal Ltd.

It plans to apply for a Environmental Compliance Approval for new scope of work for the recycling facility.

The company also told the IAAC it would bring less waste to the Dresden site than initially said – 4,000 tonnes per day instead of the 6,000 tonnes.

Meantime, The Independent has learned, a meeting is set up with York1 and Chatham-Kent officials.

Sources say the meeting is expected to take place in mid-November. CK officials confirmed at council a meeting has been arranged with planners from the company.

Just after the IAAC’s president announced he didn’t believe a federal probe was necessary, Laryssa Waler, spokesperson for York1, called on the municipality to meet with the company.

“We invite the Mayor, CAO, and council to meet with our planning and engineering team at the earliest opportunity to review design safeguards, monitoring, truck-routing controls, and community-benefit commitments—including a Community Liaison Committee with independent experts and a host-community benefits agreement.”