To Whom It May Concern, The…

To Whom It May Concern,

The City of Brampton (hereinafter referred to as ‘the City’) appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed changes outlined in the Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO) posting number 019-9196 – Enabling Greater Beneficial Reuse of Excess Soil.

• The City supports the proposed amendment of coming into force date of section 22 of the regulation to January 1, 2027.
• The amendment suggests that if the excess soil is to be landfilled, once of the conditions would be for a Qualified person to make a declaration. A Qualified Person may be able to declare a reuse site that may use the soil for other beneficial purposes has not been located after reasonable efforts. Clarity on how such reasonable efforts should be demonstrated would be appreciated.
• Coordination between infrastructure projects, and the work planned and being undertaken concurrently is practically very rare, as such this amendment may not be very beneficial.
• Road related impacts not only include F3, F4 and PAHs, may also include some heavy metals (i.e. Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn). Consideration for exemption of such metals is recommended.
• Local concentration mapping is welcomed, but municipalities will not be able to bear the cost.
• While the Ministry is considering amendments to the regulation, we would like the Ministry to address or provide additional guidance on the following matters:

1. Consideration should be given to either reduce the RPRA Registry Fees or cap it for larger projects.
2. Clarity/Guidance on QP’s discretion is required. Validity of Planning reports need to be better explained.
3. Extension on Transfer Site timelines will be appreciated. 2 years is a very short period in the municipal environment.

The Legislation has evolved considerably in the last two years. Every time an amendment is introduced, there are several changes required on our end. Before the benefits of such amendments are realized, changes need to be made to current contract documents, SOPs, staff training, etc. Long term projects well underway may have already spent funds to comply with current legislative requirements, as such rushing these amendments will not have any immediate benefit.

The municipal members have been successfully collaborating since the introduction of the Regulation and sharing information to learn and interpret the regulations. It is recommended that the Ministry has more collaborative workshops with municipalities/public bodies, before finalizing/refining these amendments.

As such, we recommend, further consultation with Municipalities and Public Agencies prior to implementing the proposed amendments to make them more beneficial.

The City of Brampton would like to thank the Province for the opportunity to provide feedback and comments on the proposed changes.

Sincerely,

Steve Ganesh, MCIP, RPP
Commissioner
Planning, Building & Growth Management