HARDEMAN INTRODUCES MOTION TO STOP LANDFILLS BEING FORCED ON MUNICIPALITIES

QUEEN’S PARK- Today Ernie Hardeman, MPP Oxford, will be introducing an amendment to the Planning Act which would prevent landfills from being forced on unwilling host municipalities.

“This amendment would ensure that communities like ours have a say in where landfills are placed,” said Hardeman. “Municipalities know the community and the local environment. I believe that they should have the ability to say whether is site is appropriate for a landfill.”

Hardeman is putting forward the amendment as part of clause-by-clause deliberations on Bill 139 which reforms the OMB and the Conservation Authority Act. The amendment will likely be voted on during the committee meeting this afternoon.

During public hearings on Bill 139, Mayor Comiskey recommended this amendment and said: “Municipalities don’t have a role in the landfill decision making process, other than as a bystander. They are not asked whether they approve the projects, where they should be, or how they should operate; yet they can have a permanent scar on the face of communities.”

The amendment introduced by Hardeman reads:

  “A landfill shall not be located within a municipality or on a reserve unless the municipal council or the council of the band, as the case may be, passes a resolution supporting the location of the landfill.”

“We have made it clear as a community that we believe the proposed landfill in Beachville poses too great a risk to our drinking water and we are not a willing host,” said Hardeman. “I hope that all parties will support this amendment and give our municipal council the ability to protect our drinking water by saying no to this landfill.”

– 30 –

For more information, contact:

Ernie Hardeman, MPP Oxford

(416) 325-1239