Burlington, Ont., council asks province to reject contentious Nelson quarry expansion proposal

If elected officials in Burlington, Ont., have their way, a quarry's contentious plan to expand its open pit within the Niagara Escarpment will not go ahead. 

Burlington councillors and mayor unanimously passed a sharply worded motion this past week requesting the province deny Nelson Aggregates' proposal to add nearly 80 hectares to its Mount Nemo quarry's extraction area — a similar pitch that was rejected in 2012. 

The decision on May 21 comes after years of protest by local environmental groups. 

"We are very happy to see the mayor and council unanimously pick up the torch from previous councils and staff," said Roger Goulet, director of Protecting Escarpment Rural Land, in a statement. 

The motion, put forward by Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and seconded by Coun. Rory Nisan, raises concerns about the local environmental impact in an ecologically sensitive area. The quarry is on protected Greenbelt land and a UNESCO biosphere reserve and near the Mount Nemo Conservation Area, the motion says. 

"On this one off, [the province] could make a really big change for the environment and greenbelt," Nisan told council.

The Halton Region, City of Burlington, Ministry of Natural Resources and local environmental groups and conservation authorities "identified key concerns," says the motion. 

These concerns include that the quarry expansion would:

Nelson Aggregates have also not planned how it will restore the area after its done mining, says the motion.

The city will also ask the province to add more environmental protections to the Mount Nemo Plateau. 

Nelson Aggregates will continue to pursue the expansion at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), where a hearing is scheduled next March, said spokesperson Kevin Powers in a statement. 

If the city has a strong case for the quarry not to expand, it should let the process play out at the independent tribunal rather than "request political interference from the province," Powers said. 

But Nison said if the province dismisses the application and the city can avoid an OLT hearing, it would save taxpayers thousands of dollars in legal fees.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry will not made the decision and will leave it up to the OLT, it told CBC Hamilton in a statement Friday.