Dear Editor:
An open letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
On July 29 in Milton you responded to a question regarding the proposed Campbellville (Reid) Quarry as follows:
“I am not in favour of that. I believe in governing for the people. And when the people don’t want something you don’t do it. It’s very simple. I know the mayor he doesn’t want it, no one wants it. I don’t want it. We are going to make sure it doesn’t happen one way or another.”
On Highway 7 in Guelph-Eramosa Township, just 20 kilometres from the Reid quarry, another proposed quarry is waiting for a licence to be issued, the so-called Hidden Quarry, proposed in 2013. It is a direct parallel to the Campbellville case:
– citizens of Guelph-Eramosa, Halton Hills and Milton donated $800,000 and countless volunteer hours over seven years to say “We don’t want this quarry!” It’s that clear;
– Guelph-Eramosa council voted on April 15 that the municipality doesn’t want it;
– our neighbour, the Region of Halton and the Town of Halton Hills, actively opposed it;
– MPPs Parm Gill and Ted Arnott were fully apprised of the community concerns.
What we got for all this was the interim approval of the quarry by a single arbitrator from the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal, which included an arrogant dismissal of the people’s concerns: “There is no question that a quarry will result in some disruption to the area during its operation. Twenty years is not a short duration.
“A generation will grow up during this time when, compared to today, there will be regular blasting and more noise and trucks. And yet in the longer-term horizon, 20 years is short . . .”
If your statement in Milton is not just hollow words, if you really do “believe in governing for the people” and if you are true to the commitment that “when the people don’t want something you don’t do it,” the citizens of Guelph-Eramosa and Milton (Nassagaweya) are looking to you to make sure the Hidden Quarry doesn’t happen!
Doug Tripp,
President, Concerned Residents Coalition, Rockwood