Doug Ford's Bill 5 raises risk more communities will be forced to take garbage, municipalities warn

Toronto Star

05-08-2025

Premier Doug Ford's controversial Bill 5, which will force an annual 365,000 tonnes of garbage on an inactive Dresden landfill, puts communities across Ontario at risk of similar treatment, warns the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO).
In a July 15 letter to Environment Minister Todd McCarthy, AMO said the removal of environmental assessment requirements for the Dresden landfill — enabled by the new legislation — opens the door to the massive expansion of waste facilities in other communities even if, like the Municipality of Chatham Kent, they are firmly opposed. 'This approach sets a concerning precedent that any of the over 600 active and inactive landfills across Ontario could be similarly expanded,' wrote AMO president Robin Jones.
The impact could reach far beyond numbers quoted in the letter. In addition to 600 active waste management sites, AMO staff said there are another 1,800 closed landfills owned by municipal, provincial, and private owners.
While acknowledging that Ontario 'urgently needs increased landfill capacity' to meet the province's goals for a dramatic boost in housing, Jones said the ministry's reversal on Dresden's environmental assessment — replacing it with a 1980s era 'environmental compliance approval' — does not cover the full scope needed for such a massive expansion.
Dresden's 'inactive' site is currently allowed to accept 75 tonnes of waste a year, according to AMO, and under new government approvals that would jump to an annual 365,000 tonnes, an increase of almost 5,000 times. All of this would be done, the letter states, without a proper assessment on agricultural land, woodlots, waterways and quality of life.
In addition to possible environmental impacts, the quality of life issue is one that often goes unconsidered. Years ago, residents who dealt with hundreds of trucks carrying Toronto's excavated soil to their small towns were outraged by the impact of so many heavy trucks on their communities. In Dresden, the landfill is located 800 metres from homes and the Municipality of Chatham Kent 'is not supportive of the expansion,' Jones said.
Queen's Park has said the trade war with the United States is forcing the government to look at domestic options for waste disposal. 'Ontario exports nearly 40 per cent of its waste to the United States and it is anticipated our landfills, as they stand, will be full within the next decade,' said McCarthy's spokesperson Alexandru Cioban. The Dresden landfill expansion, called the York 1 waste project, 'presented a unique opportunity, as it is the landfill that can mobilize the quickest to increase internal waste management capacity, ensure long-term stability and reduce reliance on international systems,' Cioban said. Since it is an expansion of an existing active landfill site, Cioban said it 'would not normally' require an environmental assessment. 'To be clear, Bill 5 has made no changes to approval requirements for any other landfill or waste projects in Ontario,' he said.
AMO's letter follows an earlier missive that said Ontario's increased pressure for landfill space — with estimates that its capacity will run out in 10 years — will only worsen now that the government is proposing changes to the blue box system.
In early June, the ministry proposed killing its plan to add blue box recycling to apartments and condos or long-term care and retirement homes that do not already have the service. And, it proposed a five-year delay to the expansion of blue box services in public spaces — a service that would have been paid for by the producers of packaging and other materials collected by the system. In her July 7 letter to McCarthy, Jones said the elimination of the planned blue box program in multi-residential buildings will create a 'fragmented 'two-tiered' system' where some Ontarians have access to recycling while others do not.
Cioban said the ministry is 'currently reviewing feedback from the consultation.' In 2022, Ontario generated up to 15.5 million tonnes of nonhazardous waste, which is equivalent to 1.127 tonnes per person, according to AMO's Ontario Baseline Waste and Recycling Report. As for Ontario's shrinking landfill capacity, Jones said AMO supports the government's efforts to streamline landfill development approvals, but called for a shared approach that recognizes the needs of municipalities and the province, in a plan to expand landfill capacity.
'We continue to stress the importance of balancing these goals with strong environmental protection.'