Burlington anti-quarry campaign joins Ontario-wide push to halt gravel mining
CBC
The campaign to stop a Burlington quarry has joined a wider movement hoping to put a temporary pause on new aggregate extraction sites across Ontario.
As the spring provincial election draws near, politicians are being pressured to re-examine the rules for an industry they say advances climate change, displaces wildlife and uses precious groundwater resources.
The Reform Gravel Mining Coalition is a provincewide alliance of individuals from areas containing quarries and several advocacy groups, including Conserving our Rural Ecosystems (CORE), the Burlington group fighting against the expansion of the Nelson Aggregates quarry at Mount Nemo.
Carlisle resident Graham Flint, who spent a decade successfully fighting a proposed St. Mary's cement quarry in Flamborough, which sits between Hamilton and Burlington, is the coalition's co-chair. He said his group realizes banning quarries is unrealistic, but believes it's too easy for companies to start new sites.
"We want to put a stop to unnecessary aggregate extraction and we think this is an industry that's gotten out of control," said Flint.
He pointed to Ontario's provincial policy statement, which guides planning decisions. It says "as much of the mineral aggregate resources as is realistically possible shall be made available as close to markets as possible. Demonstration of need for mineral aggregate resources, including any type of supply/demand analysis, shall not be required."
"That's crazy in this day and age," said Flint, adding that considering the climate emergency, we should be more focused on development and protecting the natural landscape.
His group would like to see the issue studied by a committee that would include independent experts, industry representatives and Indigenous communities, who could then make recommendations on how much gravel is truly needed.
"The majority of gravel produced in Ontario produces highways and urban sprawl," said Flint, noting Ontario has numerous dormant pits with aggregate remaining in them that could be extracted, instead of starting new sites. "As we build denser and smarter communities, we're going to use less gravel, not more."
The coalition spent Friday making about 100 calls to provincial politicians, including Burlington MPP Jane McKenna, Oakville North-Burlington MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos, Premier Doug Ford and several members of his cabinet.
Meanwhile, those following the issue in Burlington are awaiting a report on the Nelson proposal from the Joint Agency Review Team (JART), a group of planners and support staff from Halton Region, the City of Burlington, the Niagara Escarpment Commission and Conservation Halton.
That group's assessment will be used to help its member bodies make their decisions on whether to approve the application. CORE members believe it could come out sometime this spring. CBC reached out to the JART, through Halton Region, but did not hear back before this article's publication.
The Ontario aggregate industry is not aligned with calls for a moratorium.
Sharon Armstrong, vice-president of communications for the Ontario Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, said the push to ban quarries is "absolutely" coming from a place of NIMBYism — the result of people enjoying the benefits but not wanting extraction in their neighbourhoods.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.