James Dick Construction Ltd. has referred its Aggregate Resources Act application for the “hidden quarry” near Rockwood to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) for a final decision.
In a phone interview with the Advertiser Greg Sweetnam, vice president of resources for James Dick Construction Ltd. (JDCL), said he announced at the May 19 Guelph-Eramosa council meeting that the quarry application, initially made about two and a half years ago, has been “referred” to the OMB.
Sweetnam said the township will still have to take a position, but “it’s the Ontario Municipal Board that will be making the actual decision on the quarry.”
Guelph-Eramosa CAO Kim Wingrove told the Advertiser in a phone interview the two-year deadline for a decision on the application was up in March and that’s why the company is now able to take the matter directly to the OMB.
“The timelines had passed under the Aggregate Resources Act and under the Planning Act … and once those timelines are passed then the applicant has the right to file an application with the Ontario Municipal Board to make a decision as council hadn’t made one within the time allowed,” she explained. “They said to council … that they felt that a lot of the assessment work had been done and was complete.”
JDCL has been working to open a gravel pit and quarry on the north side of Highway 7 at the 6th Line since March 2013. Over two-plus years the company has completed numerous studies that have been peer reviewed by Guelph-Eramosa consultants in preparation for a planning report.
Sweetnam said the company chose to go to the municipal board because there were 29 residential objections on file as of May 21, 18 of which were from Guelph-Eramosa residents and 11 from Milton residents.
As long as there is one objection on file, the application would be taken to the OMB, Sweetnam said.
“They’re just dead set against it … for every issue and no matter what we say they’re kind of not listening, they’re just still in objection to it,” he said. “So we said, ‘Look it’s inevitable that this is going to go before the Ontario Municipal Board.’”
Sweetnam said JDCL has received approval from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Transportation and the Grand River Conservation Authority to go ahead with the quarry.
He also pointed out that all of the peer reviews completed by Guelph-Eramosa Township have said there is no issue with the quarry from a technical perspective.
“We’re down to the very few issues and we know we’re going to be going to the board anyway, so what we’ve done is we’ve appealed our zoning bylaw application and we’ve asked the MNR to refer our Aggregate Resources Act application to the Ontario Municipal Board just to get in line and this is what we call a non-hostile referral in that we’re not saying we’re cutting off ties, we’re not going to pay for peer reviews or anything, from that point forward,” Sweetnam explained.
Wingrove also said it’s JDCL which pays for assessment reports being undertaken.
“And they have indicated that they will continue to support that work,” she said.
Sweetnam pointed out one of the big areas of concern for the municipalities was the haul route; however, the route is on a provincial highway so the company is able to use it.
“That’s the way the province works,” he said. “You’re always allowed to use the provincial highway for truck traffic.”
Opponents of the proposed pit have also expressed concern about ground water quantity and quality, area farming operations, fish and wild life, and possible negative impacts from underwater blasting, among other items.
But Sweetnam said he thinks many of the objections JDCL is facing are based on false information.
“We believe that many of the residents who have objected, haven’t objected because they’ve got the real information from our quarry application but rather they’ve been taking in this information from the CRC (Concerned Residents Coalition) which is just wrong,” he said.
“It’s erroneous; it’s there to kind of create fear and raise money as opposed to being the real data.”
He said people making some of the group’s presentations to council aren’t professionals in the field and may not have the knowledge necessary to do a full evaluation.
“I just cautioned council about putting really any credence in the CRC presentations … ” he said. “We’ve asked them to … allow their professional peer reviewers to decipher the information from those presentations because they’re so fraught with mistakes and misinformation and just inexperience that it’s very difficult for a lay person to read those presentations and understand what’s real and what isn’t.”
Sweetnam said he thinks going directly to the OMB will likely spur people into making decisions.
“It creates sort of a backstop for negotiations so that people are kind of forced to make decisions as opposed to just leaving it open-ended where people can just endlessly criticize without having any target date to kind of work to,” he explained.
“The ratepayers just make these criticisms, they’re not based on any facts and then they just disappear into the woodwork and there’s no consequences for them to make all these erroneous statements.”
With the OMB hearing he said objectors will have to back-up all of their claims with real data.
“Let’s get the real scientists together in a room and find out what the real issues are here so that we can get them resolved,” Sweetnam said. “That’s the process where they’ll get a full and complete disclosure of all the facts … now both sides will be subject to cross-examination by lawyers from the other and all of the arguments that are being put forward will be tested now.”
Though he doesn’t have any firm dates, Sweetnam said he thinks the OMB hearing would be held in 2016 with maybe some preliminary meetings late this year.
The township will consider the matter at a future council meeting, Wingrove said, and make a decision as to whether or not to go forward with the planning report township consultants have been working towards – and how the township will use the time before the hearings begin.
