NDACT recommends automatic EA for any extraction below water table

AWARE Simcoe July 2 2012 

Last Tuesday, in Orangeville, members of the Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on General Government heard representations on Ontario’s outdated Aggregate Resources Act from, among others, Carl Cosack of the North Dufferin Agricultural Community Taskforce; Leo Blydorp of the Dufferin Federation of Agriculture; Debbie Gordon of Save the Oak Ridges Moraine; Veronica Smith of the Saugeen Ojibway First Nation; farmer David Vander Zaag; and Mike Schreiner of the Green Party. 

The NDACT presentation proposed:

1) A tiered licensing program, recognizing different classes of applications, with any proposal that endeavours to go below the water table automatically designated for a provincial Environmental Assessment, with the Ministry of the Environment taking the lead in the approval process.

(2) Different-length commenting and review periods, depending on the class, size and complexity of the application.

(3) The more complex applications should have funding rules so community organizations can be properly represented and municipalities financially enabled to deal with them properly. 

(4) Source water regions should get legislative protection from industrial extractive activity. The risks associated with extraction in source water regions will never outweigh the benefits. 

“You have the ability to protect Ontario’s source water regions in order to safeguard our agricultural and economic well-being,” Cosack told the committee. “You have to make that your own non-partisan legacy.”

See transcript for full details of the NDACT and other presentations. 

The committee travels to: 

– Ottawa and Sudbury during the week of July 16, 2012. Deadline to request to speak is 12 noon on Tues., July 3, 2012.

– Kitchener-Waterloo on Mon. July 9, 2012. Deadline 12 noon on July 3, 2012.

Written comments accepted until 5pm on July 17, 2012.

Link for committee contacts and more info

Have Your Say … Remember:  Silence Means Consent … Alert any contacts you have in Ottawa or Kitchener-Waterloo. And get your comments in by July 17.

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