Wednesday, November 27, 2019…

Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Thank you for this opportunity to comment on Bill 132, Better for People, Smarter for Business Act 2019.

As a resident residing in the scenic, rural Ontario municipality of Town of Erin, fellow residents and I are passionate and committed members of our grass-root group, Citizens Against Fill Dumping, fighting to keep our tranquil and unspoiled lifestyle. Since 2013, our group has been active, educating local and county councils, residents and provincial representatives to the growing dilemma of fill-dumping, caused by provincial directives, ie Places to Grow, redefining GreenBelt, etc. We recognize change is inevitable, but it needs not and MUST not be at the cost of one group to the advantage of another group.

According to Government literature, “the objective of the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act 2019, is to introduce new measures to further ease the regulatory burden to help businesses, people, schools, hospitals and municipalities. It continues “it is committed to bringing forward a series of red tape reduction packages ….to eliminate or reduce costly requirements on Ontario businesses…. Furthermore, it claims the proposed Act aims to modernize regulatory requirements that are outdated, ineffective or duplicative of federal regulations or municipal bylaws. I believe, in the past few years, various ministries have already taken the initiatives to review AND modernize regulatory requirements ie Aggregate Act, Municipal Affairs (Greenbelt Plan vis-à-vis Land Use Planning Review)
Citizens Against Fill-Dumping has been fighting unregulated fill dumping since 2013 with our municipality and the province. We citizens have valid concerns such as noise and dust nuisance issues impacting on our health, truck haulage routes impacting on traffic safety, lack of soil testing and tracking impacting on our water quality and food sources. Thanks to the then Environmental Commissioner, Gord Miller and our MPP Ted Arnott, MOECC agreed to EBR. The review process of how to regulate the unfettered soil moving industry in Ontario began in earnest.

The dedication and persistence of groups like ours and Ontario Soil Regulation Task Force (OSRTF), a province-wide volunteer citizen group, allowed our concerns to be heard when we joined the Excess Soil Advisory Committee established by MOECC. Our two groups were in the minority; the major stakeholders included reps from the aggregate industry, Eng. Consulting firms, developers, fill brokers.

After 3 years of collaboration of stakeholders guided by MOECC staff, Excess Soil Regulations are expected to be made public this coming spring.

It seems that this proposed Better for People, Smarter for Business Act 2019 is redundant in many aspects. Many reviews by various ministries have been carried out within the last 3 years. Why are ministries again working on their “respective” proposals? Why are the Ministries working in “silos” as opposed to working more efficiently together toward an effective “big picture” solution? Ontario families have to plan their personal limited resources according to their family “big picture”. We should expect no less from the government.

I will comment on what I know from my experiences with fill and focus on a few of the proposed changes. The Administrative monetary penalties proposed by moving penalties to administrative fines and from daily fines to caps per contravention are unacceptable. Essentially, polluters may very well take the attitude that fines are “acceptable risk and cost to doing business. Some polluters have deep pockets and are willing to take the risk. In our journey, we have seen such situations where landowners accept untested soil and because the monetary reward is greater than the penalty and consequence of receiving contaminated soil, they are willing to risk being fined. The other critical issue to be considered is: who will enforce and monitor the regulations? Municipalities cannot be burdened by this task unless properly funded by province.

Aggregate Resources Act has many proposed changes. One change we strongly oppose and which need more attention and finesse is “making the plan amendments” easier. For whom? The developers, major contractors and pit owners? This ease of plan amendments skewed power to those with money and resources. Excess soil produced could be profitably used to fill pits. In the Town of Erin, that is exactly what happened at the Mulmur Pit in Ospringe where untested fill was imported from Toronto’s Lakeshore (brownfield). Up in Hillsburgh, residents are up in arms fighting CBM’s need to mine below the water table. This plan amendment would hinder residents’ ability to fight to preserve their way of life and their guarantee to clean water. Another proposed change “to restrict municipal zoning of a pit on crown land” is unacceptable. Does this mean established residents around the Rockwood Conservation Park or the Terra Cotta Conservation Park must stand helplessly by with no say in what happens to their neigbhourhoods and lifestyle as gravel pits are developed in their midst? This is not only unfair, but unreasonable. Who would adjudicate a reasonable solution?
Is this proposed Act really better for People and Smarter for business? Maybe big business with deep pockets. As long as the government focus on building, accessing aggregate, finding places to dump displaced soil from major/large cities, this Act does not help the ordinary people or the small businesses. When up against a business expecting to make millions on what they want see happen, that business is likely to win in front of town council or the OMB against poorly funded municipal staff and concerned citizens.

The Crombie Report listed imported fill as one of 6 threats and provided Recommendation 46 which states that “to improve the management of excess soil, the province should provide 1)direction and where necessary provincial involvement in the oversight to support effective use of existing tools such as municipal bylaws, planning tools and conservation authority permits 2)consistent province-wide controls on excess soil management based on best practices and policy directions from the excess soil policy strategic framework currently being prepared by provincial ministries. Unfortunately, what is expressed in the proposed legislation is ineffective and maintains the status quo.
From a grass-root perspective, this Act is not inclusive. Better for People, what people? Certainly not those of us who take seriously our role as stewards of the Land and Environment. Smarter for Business? What business? Ones with deep pockets or connections? Smart? There is a right way and a wrong way to doing business if we expect proper outcomes. By taking short-cuts? No way. Often, short-cuts create problems of their own.

A. Spiteri, Erin resident, member of Citizens Against Fill Dumping