As a consultant providing…

As a consultant providing professional engineering services to Applicants under the ARA it has become a very frustrating, time consuming and expensive process for my clients. A cost of $500k and 5 years of process is not uncommon-and no guarantee a permit or licence will ever be granted. I tell potential new clients they must have incredible patience and deep pockets-and they may never get a tonne extracted for their investment. The risk is very high and often they do not pursue an an approval under the ARA. Ontario is consuming more aggregate then is currently available through existing operations and yet the process for new sites is so onerous that it turns potential producers away. I am currently in year 8 for one client who has experienced a long list of misdirection from the MNRF and MECP for a permit application and triplicate effort with the ARA process, the RSFD Class EA and Planning Act (to apply to re-zone crown land). Three processes with the same objectors, the same comments and the same effort required to consult and answer these issues. The red tape and in this case tripling of effort, seems lost on agency personnel. There is little agency regard for the economic impacts of this where protection of the environment has trumped all logical and defensible technical documents that have shown the avoidance, mitigation and rehabilitation of any environmental impacts. The needle must be brought back to where economics and environment are 50/50. The ARA is clear on what consultation and studies are required for what category and this should be sufficient. My client has to date invested over 1 million dollars on this application and the Class EA has not been completed yet! A Part II request could delay this another year. The ARA submission can only follow the completion of the Class EA and most likely the zoning by-law amendment (ZBLA) approval will be appealed to LPAT resulting in another extensive delay. How can any prospective developer wanting to invest in a community, provide long term well paying jobs and add to the GDP of Ontario be expected to continue with this mountain of red tape and process? The time is neigh to revamp the ARA and get serious about reducing the time and effort required to access aggregates-if not the ripple effect of growing travel distances to get raw materiel will increase prices for dozens of aggregate based products for all consumers in Ontario.