Latest news with #Dresden
CTV News
5 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Bill to help fast-track Dresden landfill passes
Provincial legislation to help fast-track a highly contentious landfill in Dresden, Ont. was passed on Wednesday. Provincial legislation to help fast-track a highly contentious landfill in Dresden, Ont. was passed on Wednesday. As part of Bill 5, 'Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act,' Ontario can exempt certain projects from the need for a full environmental assessment. 'Dresden is that special place where all the evils in Bill five will sort of happen first,' said Stefan Premdas, the board chair of Dresden C.A.R.E.D, an advocacy group formed in opposition to the landfill. Despite exhaustive efforts by Liberal and NDP MPPs to stall the vote, the Ford government pushed through the legislation. The bill will exempt the York1 Environmental Waste Solutions project on Irish School Road from a comprehensive environmental assessment. In recent months, Dresden residents, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and Walpole Island First Nation have vehemently opposed the proposal. The long-defunct dump was previously used as a tile yard and ash landfill. By reopening it, residents fear there will be adverse changes to the environment, impacting their health, wildlife, and nearby ecosystems. York1 has insisted the site will recycle construction materials and non-hazardous soils, but municipal officials have disputed the claim. 'We are feeling emotional as to Bill Five passing, but make no mistake, us being emotional and sad does not mean we've stopped fighting,' Premdas told CTV News. The bill has been heavily scrutinized by First Nations Communities, who say their rights have been trampled. Leela Thomas, chief of Walpole Island First Nation, told CTV News the government delivered a 'slap in the face' to treaty rights. When asked about Dresden, Thomas noted they don't believe the fight is over. 'We're going to fight this to the Supreme Court if we need to,' Thomas said. Dresden area MPP Steve Pinsonneault was absent Wednesday from his seat at Queen's Park when Bill 5 was approved. Pinsonneault had previously broken with party rank by publicly voicing his opposition to the legislation. In a previous post on social media, Pinsonneault said even if he voted against the bill, it wouldn't change the outcome. CTV News reached out to MPPs across Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent but only received one response. Andrew Dowie, MPP for Windsor-Tecumseh, downplayed the concerns over the landfill proposal. 'This is not a new landfill in Dresden. It is already approved for waste, and the same very strict environmental scrutiny through the ECA, the Environmental Compliance Approval process, will remain,' Dowie said. 'This is not zero regulation. This is pretty tough regulation.' On several occasions, the Ford government has defended the legislation because of dwindling landfill space. 'The United States, particularly Michigan, has said they're tired of taking in our waste generated in Ontario, and we do not have an overabundance of landfill capacity,' Dowie added. — With files from CTV Windsor's Michelle Maluske and Travis Fortnum.
CTV News
5 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Dresden landfill bill fast tracked at Queen's Park
Dresden landfill bill fast tracked at Queen's Park Provincial legislation to help fast-track a highly contentious landfill in Dresden, Ont. was passed on Wednesday.
CBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Canada-U.S. trade war could spark an 'immediate crisis' in Ontario's landfills
Social Sharing Doug Ford's government is blaming U.S. tariffs for the expansion of a controversial landfill project in southwestern Ontario — but experts say the conflict should serve as a wake-up call that time is running out to find long-term solutions to the province's rapidly-filling landfills. Ford's government has repeatedly raised the spectre of the U.S. President Donald Trump tariffing, or cutting off, garbage shipments to the U.S. as the rationale to reopen the York1 landfill site near Dresden, Ont. While it's unclear if Trump has made such a threat publicly, or privately, the province has depended on the U.S. to take millions of tonnes of its trash for decades. "It's about being self-reliant when it comes to waste management and all matters economic," Ontario's Environment Minister Todd McCarthy said in question period recently while defending the York1 project. Ontario sent one-third of its waste to three American states between 2006 and 2022, with 40 million tonnes going to Michigan alone. Ontario generates between 12 and 15 million tonnes of trash annually and while the government's concerns are legitimate, one landfill will not solve the problem, said York University professor Calvin Lakhan. "If, for whatever reason, the U.S. administration decided to close their borders to Canadian waste … we would face an immediate crisis that we simply do not have the infrastructure to manage," Lakhan said. Conservative MPP speaks out against proposed Dresden landfill 13 days ago Duration 3:08 Ontario will exhaust its landfill capacity over the next decade The province's auditor general and the association that represents the province's waste and recycling sector have warned for years that Ontario's landfill capacity will be exhausted over the next decade. A 2023 report from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario showed that while waste diversion rates increased in the preceding five years, so too did the amount of garbage generated by the province's growing population. Even before Trump took office, Ontario faced major challenges disposing of its own garbage, said Lakhan, who is director of York's Circular Innovation Hub. But, he says the Dresden landfill, which the company says will take only non-hazardous construction and demolition materials, won't be enough to solve the crunch. "Adding additional capacity to one landfill in the province is like putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound," he said. "At best, it provides us a temporary reprieve." Late last month, NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns slammed the government for failing to take earlier action on the file. "In 2021, the Auditor General reported Ontario was facing a landfill crunch," he said. "This is not news, and the government did nothing about it." AG warns businesses, institutions not doing enough to divert waste At the time, the then-auditor general Bonnie Lysyk issued a damning report which laid some of the blame for the landfill crunch at the feet of businesses and institutions provincewide. They generate 60 per cent of Ontario's waste — that's at least 7.2 million tonnes of waste annually — and 98 per cent don't recycle, she said. WATCH | Changes to who pays for recycling in Ontario: Who pays for recycling collection in Ontario is changing, and corporations aren't happy 1 year ago Duration 2:13 In 2017, the previous Liberal government set a goal to divert half of all waste generated by the province's residential and business sectors by 2030, and 80 per cent by 2050. As of 2021, Lysyk said the province was not on track to hit those targets. As a result, she warned, "Ontario will be faced with questions about where to put all this waste and how to pay for it in the very near future." A follow up audit from Lysyk's office in 2023 showed the government had made little progress on her 2021 recommendations. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the government has shown little interest in tackling the problem. "What this really shows is the Ford government's utter failure to bring forward a zero waste strategy for Ontario to hit waste diversion targets," he told CBC Toronto in a recent interview. Trade war an excuse to loosen rules, says environmentalist Karen Wirsig, senior program manager for plastics with Environmental Defence, said she's concerned the government will use Trump's tariffs as an excuse to push ahead with new or expanded landfills and to loosen environmental assessment rules around their creation. "What worries me — and what it probably signals — is a broader intention by the government to use the sense of emergency to override local planning, local decision-making and local wishes," she said. Ontario should use this moment to build consensus on a variety of waste diversion strategies that prolong the life of its current landfills, Wirsig said. It could also create a plastic bottle deposit program to encourage recycling and get behind "right to repair" efforts to keep electronics in use for years, she added. "This is the low hanging fruit," Wirsig said, stressing that pursuing an organics diversion program amongst businesses, institutions and multi-unit residential properties would keep food waste out of landfills. Lakhan said the province may have to consider expansion of waste to energy facilities that burn trash to create electricity. While the technology remains controversial in Ontario, he said Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia are turning to it. "It's not necessarily considered a desirable end-of-life outcome," he said. "But the reality is that it's probably one of the only economically and technologically feasible short-term solutions that could potentially address this waste crisis." The association that represents Ontario's waste and recycling sector said it too is concerned about the spectre of tariffs on garbage shipments. It can take eight to 10 years for a new landfill to become operational, so enhanced disposal and diversion methods are needed, said Waste to Resource Ontario spokesperson Sophia Koukoulas. A spokesperson for Minister McCarthy said the York1 project near Dresden is the landfill that can "mobilize the quickest" to reduce reliance on the U.S.
CTV News
7 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
York1 filed court challenge over landfill project months before Ford government proposed rollback
The company behind a controversial landfill proposal near Dresden launched a legal challenge last summer over Ontario's decision to require a full environmental assessment — months before the Ford government introduced legislation to scrap that requirement. York1 Environmental Waste Solutions Ltd. filed a judicial review application on July 29, 2024, seeking to overturn the province's designation regulation that placed its project under Ontario's comprehensive environmental assessment process. A copy of the court filing and confirmation of the legal action were provided to CTV News by York1. The application was filed in Divisional Court in London, Ont. CTV News has contacted the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks for confirmation and comment and is awaiting a response. Timeline of events: Dresden landfill proposal March 11, 2024 – While speaking in Windsor, Premier Doug Ford is asked about the proposed landfill near Dresden. He says he's unfamiliar with the issue but adds: 'If people like something, we do it. If they don't, we don't do it. It's about as simple as that.' – While speaking in Windsor, Premier Doug Ford is asked about the proposed landfill near Dresden. He says he's unfamiliar with the issue but adds: March 15, 2024 – Former Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Andrea Khanjin announces the project will be subject to a comprehensive environmental assessment, under Ontario Regulation 284/24. – Former Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Andrea Khanjin announces the project will be subject to a comprehensive environmental assessment, under Ontario Regulation 284/24. July 29, 2024 – York1 files a judicial review application, arguing the designation contradicts prior guidance the company says it received in 2022 from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, indicating a screening-level EA would apply. – York1 files a judicial review application, arguing the designation contradicts prior guidance the company says it received in 2022 from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, indicating a screening-level EA would apply. April 17, 2025 – The Ford government introduces Bill 5, which proposes to eliminate the EA requirement for the Dresden site — effectively reversing the March 2024 decision that York1 is challenging in court. York1 argues in court filings that the province's shifting position — from limited EA, to full EA and now a possible exemption — created uncertainty and made the project 'unfeasible.' The company says it purchased the Irish School Road property in 2022 after receiving written guidance from the Ministry outlining regulatory expectations for a regenerative recycling facility accepting construction and demolition waste. A 2022 letter from the Ministry, provided by York1, states that a screening-level environmental assessment would be required for certain aspects of the project — not a comprehensive one. The project has faced widespread opposition from Dresden residents. Chatham-Kent Council has unanimously opposed the proposal, and municipal officials say the site's historic environmental approvals — dating back to the 1970s and 1990s — no longer meet modern standards. York1, meanwhile, says it met with Chatham-Kent officials numerous times, and claims the municipality initially expressed support for the project — including the concept of a host-community agreement — before later reversing course. The legal action preceded a wave of political scrutiny that has since intensified attention on the project. In May 2025, Ontario Liberal MPP Ted Hsu asked the province's Integrity Commissioner to investigate possible connections between the Ford government and the landfill proposal — pointing to roughly $200,000 in political donations made since 2018 by members of the Brunetti family, York1 executives, and individuals tied to companies involved in the property's ownership. Hsu has questioned the timing of those contributions, noting several were made around key regulatory decisions. Asked about the donations, York1 spokesperson Laryssa Waler declined to comment on individual contributions, saying all political donations in Ontario are publicly reported and 'speak for themselves.' The judicial review has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
The Guardian
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
‘Rust in peace': why are Germany's bridges and schools falling apart?
Waiting for the M49 bus to the zoo, Wolfgang, 82, peers down at the crumpled concrete and metal rubble below, the remains of a Berlin bridge recently demolished after wide cracks were discovered. Over the loud pounding of a hydraulic hammer crushing the concrete, the retired technician says he watched its construction about 60 years earlier from the window of his nearby flat. 'Now we have to hope they'll get their act together to build a new one, though I have my doubts I'll be alive to see it finished,' he says. Berlin's three-lane Ringbahnbrücke (ring road bridge), was closed unexpectedly in March, causing chaos and prompting a mass diversion of the 100,000 vehicles that used it daily. A month later, in eastern Berlin, the strategically important Wuhlheide Bridge was added to the growing list of what have been labelled 'Brösel Brücken' (crumble bridges) and is in the process of being demolished, just one among several across Germany to have recently been closed or, more dramatically still, to have collapsed. Experts have estimated that 4,000 autobahn bridges and 12,000 other road bridges are in urgent need of repair or replacement. Such are the concerns over the impact of decades of underinvestment that they have, alongside disintegrating school buildings and the beleaguered rail network, shot to the top of the agenda as Friedrich Merz's new government promises billions to renew Germany's creaking infrastructure. In the eastern city of Dresden last September, the 53-year-old Carola Bridge spanning the Elbe tumbled into the river in the middle of the night, 10 minutes after a tram had passed over it. City authorities said it was a miracle no one had been killed. Streets in the picturesque town of Lüdenscheid in western Germany are clogged with 25,000 HGVs a day, diverted there after the nearby Rahmede viaduct, a vital transport artery, was closed in 2021 owing to structural concerns and subsequently demolished. Locals complain of intense noise and emissions pollution, while businesses say their turnover has been hit and skilled workers are departing in droves. A partial new-build is under way, expected to be finished next year. Germany, for decades Europe's economic powerhouse, also has a reputation for being a land of skilful engineers and efficiency. What has gone wrong? Oliver Holtemöller, the head of macroeconomics at the Halle Institute for Economic Research, says the problems lie not in a lack of public financing, but elsewhere: 'The burden of bureaucracy, highly complex planning procedures and the lack of skilled people to carry out the work.' This, he said, was compounded by 'politicians who want to be re-elected, who prioritise projects with a very short-term return'. Even before he was sworn in as chancellor last month, run-down infrastructure was high up on the list of Merz's domestic concerns. In March, he pushed a €500bn (£422bn) fund through parliament to inject money into infrastrukturstau (infrastructure congestion) over the next 12 years, to be financed through borrowing. Bridges have earned an even more prominent place in the debate amid the recognition that the costs of their renovation can be included in Germany's military spending commitments. Bridges, after all, have to be capable of carrying military tanks; they must be kriegstauglich (fit for war). Many, in their current state, are not. For the Greens and other opposition parties, this is going too far. But, as the government signals a willingness to raise its defence spending gradually from 2% to the 5% that Donald Trump has called on Nato members to commit to, it is also widening the definition of what counts as defence spending. The foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, has said he plans to include not only pure military spending but also investments in infrastructure the military needs to use – such as roads, rail and bridges. Either way, fixing the bridges is seen as a key test for Merz: can he get a grip on the myriad challenges facing Europe's largest economy, which has had three years of negative growth? And could that help him claw back support from the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD)? 'Let the diggers roll,' his finance minister, Lars Klingbeil, of the Social Democrats, said last month, in an attempt to drum up some excitement. According to a report by the German Chamber of Industry and Trade, which represents millions of businesses, the state of Germany's bridges is 'symbolic of the desolate state of the entire infrastructure in [the country]'. In comments to the broadcaster RBB, Helmut Schmeitzner, a professor of structural engineering at Berlin's School of Economics and Law, warned: 'In general, our infrastructure is in such a state that we have to expect that such incidents as bridge and road closures will occur more frequently in the future.' So embedded has the idea of Germany's creaking infrastructure become that the heute-show, a popular satirical TV programme, recently dedicated a whole episode to 'Crumbling Germany'. 'Rust in peace' would be the appropriate slogan for the state of the nation if things did not improve, it joked. For many, however, it is no laughing matter; they warn that if Merz fails to make improvements – and quickly – the political fallout could be toxic. The AfD has already sought to profit from the controversy, calling the multiple closures and the collapse in Dresden 'not isolated cases but symbols of creeping state failure'. Holtemöller urged the government not to rush into fixing Germany, 'because that would fuel inflation but not produce real value or better bridges'. It should 'analyse where the investment is needed, which bridges are nearing the end of their lifespans' and 'bring actions and words together and not promise more than it's possible to deliver', he said. 'Most of all they should focus on long-term strategic planning.'
