As a university student, as…

As a university student, as a Canadian citizen and as someone who is trying to be an ally to Indigenous peoples to help Canada move forward from colonialism and environmental racism, this proposal concerns me deeply. Over and over again we see large companies taking advantage of small communities and using the Earth and water like they are expendable, meanwhile claiming to be a “responsible corporate citizen” as taken from Dufferin Aggregates website. Dufferin Aggregates also boasts of their environmental prowess by saying they "strive to continuously improve [their] environmental performance, provide meaningful contributions to the communities [they] operate in and contribute to a more sustainable built environment through [their] suite of sustainable solutions.” Using the world's purest water source to wash gravel is not a "sustainable solution". If you were ask average Canadians what they thought of this idea, they would undoubtedly find the idea to be nonsensical and just plain silly (although they would probably use coarser language). I understand to a certain extent the gravel may need to be washed for refining and cleaning purposes, but there are so many other sources of water in Ontario and in Canada, why choose the cleanest drinking water in the world? Why not use grey water or treated wastewater to minimize the environmental and social impacts of this water-withdrawal? Additionally, aquifers are extremely important to the geology of the area because the groundwater is able to maintain pressure within the rock and is directly connected to the cycling of surface and ground water through the basin of Lake Simcoe in this case. The removal of such great volumes of water from the groundwater system will have a huge impact on the pressure maintained normally in the ground and could result in sinkholes. As well, the removal of such large volumes of water will have huge implications to water cycling in the area, to the vegetation, animals and communities of people who rely on this source of water. We all need water to live, so why are we wasting it so inconsiderately? Please protect our resources, our lives and shared mother and do not let this withdrawal occur. [Original Comment ID: 212448]