He’s not kidding

Cathy Dobson/The Independent

Enniskillen Mayor Kevin Marriott said he was serious Thursday when he told a roomful of industry and municipal leaders that the province should consider helping Cargill relocate.

Moving Cargill’s massive elevator operation to another site along the St. Clair River would allow housing developments near the current site to go ahead as well as meet Cargill’s needs, Marriott said.

Cargill’s Sarnia Grain Terminal at the foot of Exmouth Street has operated in Sarnia since 1927 and recently asked for provincial involvement to stop residential development within 300 metres of its elevators.

Cargill’s position is that the noise, dust, odour and vibrations from its operation would create conflict if homes are built nearby.

Both Sarnia and Point Edward have large residential proposals within 300 metres of the terminal. A decision by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing could derail both.

The trouble is Cargill’s Sarnia terminal handles about 35 per cent of Ontario’s export grain and serves all of Lambton County’s farmers, said Marriott at a breakfast hosted by the Sarnia-Lambton Chamber of Commerce.

“Cargill is as important to agriculture as Line 5 is to the petrochemical industry,”  he said. “And Lambton is one of the biggest agricultural counties in the province.”

That being said, there should also be an effort to fulfill Sarnia and Point Edward’s desire to build new housing, he said.

“Maybe the province needs to move Cargill to a location that suits everyone,” he said, later elaborating that “he’s more serious than he sounded” when he said the provincial government could help pay for Cargill to be relocated “downriver.”

Cargill surprised Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley and Point Edward Mayor Bev Hand by alerting their municipalities in December that the company submitted an MZO to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack, requesting that he prohibit “sensitive” land uses within 300 metres radius of the grain elevators.

Bradley called the move “heavy-handed” while Hand said the irony is that MZOs are supposed to support development, not stop it.

Marriott said the fact that MZOs are supposed to support housing developments makes him think Flack will turn Cargill’s application down.

“If I was a betting man, I would bet that’s…the way it will come out because (the province) doesn’t want to see development stop,” said Marriott.

However, there’s been no response yet from the minister’s office.

Marriott added that relocating Cargill is no different from the provincial government relocating Ontario Place in Toronto or building an underground freeway in the GTA. .

“Look at the billions they’re spending there,” he said. 

Marriott is Lambton County’s warden, however, he stressed that he was making his comments about Cargill as Mayor of Enniskillen “so the county doesn’t get in the middle of a planning issue.”

Mayor Marriott made his comments in front of about 100 people attending the Chamber breakfast at the Point Edward Optimist Hall.