Cheers and applause rang out at Rockmosa Community Centre on Oct. 7 as the audience gave a standing ovation to Guelph-Eramosa council’s unanimous decision to advise the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) that it opposes the “hidden quarry” application, as it stands now.
“From my perspective there really is no local community benefit here,” Mayor Chris White said of the quarry. “We’re dealing with a local benefit and we’re dealing with a provincial benefit, so looking at it from a community perspective, I don’t see it.”
He added, “Now I know we all indicate that we all need gravel … and at the end of the day it has to come from somewhere, but frankly this is just too close to Rockwood … I honestly think if you look at the tiny amount of gravel they’re getting out in terms of the provincial need versus the disruption to our community, there’s no proper ratio there.”
The resolution cited significant concerns the township has regarding the application as well as a number of outstanding and unresolved issues that must be addressed to “the satisfaction of the township” before approval should be considered.
Some of the concerns are related to hydrogeology, species habitat, haul route, blast and vibration monitoring and enforcement, cultural heritage, archaeology, visual impact, property assessment values and mitigation of impacts on agricultural operations.
“I would like to point out at the outset that this resolution is not at all about being anti-aggregate or anti-quarry,” said councillor Mark Bouwmeester. “In fact, I was optimistic at the beginning of this whole process that concerns would be fully addressed and to the applicant’s credit there has been progress on addressing certain issues and positive changes have been made to the application, but in reality serious impacts (and) concerns do still remain.”
Councillor Louise Marshall highlighted the quarry’s possible impact on the desirability of Rockwood as a place to live.
“No one gives proximity to a quarry as one of their top five amenities to their real estate agent,” she said. “A quarry operating at 12 hours a day will break the peace and quiet that people come to cherish in Rockwood and can contribute to the loss of concentration of the students of the nearby Harris Mill school.”
Neither councillor David Wolk nor Corey Woods made specific comments, saying enough has been said and it’s time to move on.
The decision to oppose the application, which was also the position taken by Town of Milton council, means that’s the position Guelph-Eramosa council will take during the OMB hearings.
The decision on the zoning bylaw amendment was taken out of the municipality’s hands when James Dick Construction Ltd. (JDCL), the proposed quarry operator, filed an appeal to the OMB in June.
The quarry process began in December of 2012 when JDCL applied for a rezoning amendment for lands southeast of Rockwood – from agriculture and hazard land to extractive industrial – to make way for a quarry.
Greg Sweetnam, vice president of resources for JDCL, said the company was hoping council would approve the quarry in-principal based on conditions.
“We participated and fully devoted ourselves to the [township’s] peer review process and we were successful in all counts in that … after intense technical scrutiny we got basically the blessing of the peer reviewers that the recommendation to approve the quarry was appropriate,” Sweetnam said. “So we’re still working towards that and that’s what our target is and we’ll continue to do that even up to the OMB process.” He said JDCL is looking forward to receiving a list of conditions that have yet to be addressed.
“We don’t know of any technical area where we’re not in agreement with the [township] and so while they listed some general headings in the resolution we are anxious to get an actual list of what are the outstanding concerns because we believe we’ve addressed them all,” he said.
“The planning report that the township had basically highlighted those few areas that they sort of saw as outstanding areas and suggested remedies for those and we agreed to all the remedies so we don’t think there’s any outstanding issues … but we’re looking forward to finding out what those are.”
Sweetnam suggested Ontarians need to start looking at the province as a whole rather than individual municipalities.
“Ontario is upside down in it’s crushed stone supply by at least 9 million tonnes and we’re currently burning greenhouse gases in transporting poorer quality materials, longer distances to supply the market which should rightly be supplied with high quality materials we have that are very close to market,” he said.
“The one term that was in the council resolution that said that there’s not enough local benefit, well that’s completely outside of our control.”
Sweetnam added regions like Toronto and Peel don’t have quarries and rely on outlying areas to provide the stone they need … just like those living in outlying areas depend on the urban areas for employment.
Over the last two and a half years the township, JDCL, other community stakeholder groups and the Concerned Residents Coalition (CRC) commissioned numerous reports to be considered when making a rezoning decision.
All reports and feedback were taken into consideration when the final report by township planning consultant Elizabeth Howson of Macaulay Shiomi Howson Ltd. was presented to council on Sept. 10.
The report’s recommendation was for council to advise the OMB to approve the quarry application in-principle, subject to specific conditions being met to the satisfaction of the township, neighboring municipalities and other appropriate agencies.
Guelph-Eramosa council is requesting the OMB not approve the application unless specific conditions are met.
CRC president Doug Tripp said while the group is “guardedly pleased” council took a position of opposition, it is concerned the processes will largely be one of negotiations.
“That of course can be a very unpredictable process,” he said. “It’s kind of a quasi-judicial process once you get into the OMB.
“Our view is that a number of the potential impacts of the proposed operation are serious enough and difficult enough that we just can’t imagine that there are conditions that would make them acceptable.”
Tripp said the CRC has a variety of concerns, but four main areas of focus:
– the actual operation of the open pit mine in a karst area, including fly rock and the impact on downstream water;
– dust pollution and the impact dust has on farmers;
– the lack of a complete haul route study and the argument that the route can use provincial highways even when they go through towns; and
– the economic challenges the municipality will face in association with the mine, which were not taken into consideration by the township consultant.
The CRC has not yet decided what role it will play at the OMB, but Tripp did say the group will have a presence. The OMB prehearing conference is set for Nov. 9.
See the full council resolution at get.on.ca/hiddenquarry.
