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CBC
5 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.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
MPP calls on integrity commissioner to probe Premier Ford and ministers over Dresden, Ont., landfill project
Social Sharing Ontario's integrity commissioner is being asked to investigate the alleged connection of Premier Doug Ford, two of his cabinet members, and a former minister to a proposed landfill in Dresden, Ont. Liberal MPP for Kingston and the Islands Ted Hsu called for the investigation in a May 9 letter in which he claimed there's reasonable and probable grounds to believe that Ford and the trio may have contravened the Members' Integrity Act. The complaint comes in wake of a report in The Trillium that found the owners of the landfill property, and others connected to them, made significant donations to the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. In addition to Ford, Hsu said former minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Andrea Khanjin, current minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Todd McCarthy, and Minister of Energy and Mines Stephen Lecce "may have contravened the Act or breached parliamentary convention" in relation to decisions surrounding the Dresden landfill site. "These ministers are named in this request because Premier Doug Ford attended PC Party fundraisers closely aligned with key regulatory decisions on the landfill and is directly connected to donors with a financial stake in the project," Hsu wrote in the letter. "Andrea Khanjin, as then Minister of Environment, announced the comprehensive environmental assessment (EA) that appeared to stall the project just prior to a byelection. Todd McCarthy, her successor, is now leading the government's effort to cancel the EA through legislation, a reversal that would benefit the landfill's owners. "Stephen Lecce, as minister of energy and mines, formally introduced Bill 5, which includes a provision exempting the Dresden landfill from the EA process despite significant local opposition and no comparable exemptions for other landfills," reads the letter. According to Hsu, each of the ministers named in the letter "played a role in a sequence of events that appears to favour a politically connected group of developers and major Progressive Conservative Party donors. The circumstances raise serious concerns about whether political donations, lobbying relationships, and insider connections may have unduly influenced the exercise of public authority." Hsu said the basis for his request relates to a sequence of events in 2024–2025 involving: "Substantial political donations" from developers and executives with a direct financial stake in the Dresden landfill. The premier's participation in political fundraisers held shortly after an environmental assessment was announced for the site. The subsequent introduction of legislation (Bill 5) that would cancel that assessment and benefit those same donors. Project will still undergo extensive environmental processes: premier's office A spokesperson for the premier said the Dresden landfill is needed to reduce reliance on international systems 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," Hannah Jensen wrote in an email to CBC News. "The [Dresden] waste project ... is the landfill that can mobilize the quickest to increase internal waste management capacity to ensure long-term stability and reduce reliance on international systems, as it already has waste permissions and is not considered a new landfill. "We have been clear, the project will still undergo extensive environmental processes and remain subject to strong provincial oversight and other regulatory requirements, including Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECA) under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA)." The premier's office did not respond to the allegations made in Hsu's letter. CBC News has also reached out to the offices of McCarthy and Lecce for comment. The integrity commission has confirmed receipt of Hsu's letter, which it says is under review. Meanwhile, Ontario Liberal MPPs on Monday echoed calls for an investigation into the cancellation of the environmental assessment. The party accused the Ford government of breaking a promise to Dresden residents by reneging on its commitment for a full environmental assessment of the landfill proposal. The Liberal party said donations to the PCs since 2018 from those connected with the property are pegged at around $200,000, a figure contained in the Trillium report. "When developers who donate $200,000 to the premier's party get exemptions from environmental review, something is deeply broken in how this government is doing business," said Ontario Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie, in a news release. CBC News has not independently verified the donation figures. "Real integrity means standing by your word, not burying broken promises in legislation to protect political friends. Doug Ford made a promise to win votes during a byelection in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. He then broke that promise the moment it became politically convenient. He doesn't care to listen to rural voices, unless it benefits him."
Global News
12-05-2025
- Business
- Global News
After Ontario backtracks on landfill study, Liberals seek probe into donor links
The Ontario Liberals are asking the integrity commissioner to investigate the province's decision to backtrack on an environmental assessment of a massive landfill expansion project backed by Progressive Conservative donors. The Liberals want the integrity commissioner to look at whether Premier Doug Ford's government gave the project special treatment because its developers are lucrative donors to his party. The government is opting to cancel the assessment it had previously ordered for the project in Dresden, a rural farming community in southwestern Ontario, as part of a controversial omnibus bill making its way through the legislature. The government ordered the assessment last summer, citing the community's concerns about the proposed landfill expansion, just weeks before it called a byelection in the local riding where the PC candidate campaigned against the expansion. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Environment Minister Todd McCarthy now says the province can't afford to keep shipping a large share of its waste to the United States, suggesting Ontario is facing a landfill capacity 'crisis.' Story continues below advertisement The Liberals fired back by suggesting the government was leveraging the U.S. trade war to push through policies to benefit insiders at the expense of transparency and accountability to local residents. York1, the company behind the project, is seeking to revive a dormant landfill about a kilometre north of Dresden and expand it by more than 30-fold to service waste from across the province. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Details of the developers' donations and lobbying efforts were first reported by The Trillium, a Queen's Park-based news outlet, and were cited by the Liberals in their letter to the integrity commissioner. The Trillium reported executives at the companies and their family members had donated about $200,000 to the PCs since 2018. The Canadian Press has corroborated some of those political contributions recorded in a public Elections Ontario database. The integrity commissioner confirmed it was reviewing the Liberal request.
Hamilton Spectator
12-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
After Ontario backtracks on landfill study, Liberals seek probe into donor links
TORONTO - The Ontario Liberals are asking the integrity commissioner to investigate the province's decision to backtrack on an environmental assessment of a massive landfill expansion project backed by Progressive Conservative donors. The Liberals want the integrity commissioner to look at whether Premier Doug Ford's government gave the project special treatment because its developers are lucrative donors to his party. The government is opting to cancel the assessment it had previously ordered for the project in Dresden, a rural farming community in southwestern Ontario, as part of a controversial omnibus bill making its way through the legislature. The government ordered the assessment last summer, citing the community's concerns about the proposed landfill expansion, just weeks before it called a byelection in the local riding where the PC candidate campaigned against the expansion. Environment Minister Todd McCarthy now says the province can't afford to keep shipping a large share of its waste to the United States, suggesting Ontario is facing a landfill capacity 'crisis.' The Liberals fired back by suggesting the government was leveraging the U.S. trade war to push through policies to benefit insiders at the expense of transparency and accountability to local residents. York1, the company behind the project, is seeking to revive a dormant landfill about a kilometre north of Dresden and expand it by more than 30-fold to service waste from across the province. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Details of the developers' donations and lobbying efforts were first reported by The Trillium, a Queen's Park-based news outlet, and were cited by the Liberals in their letter to the integrity commissioner. The Trillium reported executives at the companies and their family members had donated about $200,000 to the PCs since 2018. The Canadian Press has corroborated some of those political contributions recorded in a public Elections Ontario database. The integrity commissioner confirmed it was reviewing the Liberal request. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
12-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
After Ontario backtracks on landfill study, Liberals seek probe into donor links
TORONTO – The Ontario Liberals are asking the integrity commissioner to investigate the province's decision to backtrack on an environmental assessment of a massive landfill expansion project backed by Progressive Conservative donors. The Liberals want the integrity commissioner to look at whether Premier Doug Ford's government gave the project special treatment because its developers are lucrative donors to his party. The government is opting to cancel the assessment it had previously ordered for the project in Dresden, a rural farming community in southwestern Ontario, as part of a controversial omnibus bill making its way through the legislature. The government ordered the assessment last summer, citing the community's concerns about the proposed landfill expansion, just weeks before it called a byelection in the local riding where the PC candidate campaigned against the expansion. Environment Minister Todd McCarthy now says the province can't afford to keep shipping a large share of its waste to the United States, suggesting Ontario is facing a landfill capacity 'crisis.' The Liberals fired back by suggesting the government was leveraging the U.S. trade war to push through policies to benefit insiders at the expense of transparency and accountability to local residents. York1, the company behind the project, is seeking to revive a dormant landfill about a kilometre north of Dresden and expand it by more than 30-fold to service waste from across the province. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Details of the developers' donations and lobbying efforts were first reported by The Trillium, a Queen's Park-based news outlet, and were cited by the Liberals in their letter to the integrity commissioner. The Trillium reported executives at the companies and their family members had donated about $200,000 to the PCs since 2018. The Canadian Press has corroborated some of those political contributions recorded in a public Elections Ontario database. The integrity commissioner confirmed it was reviewing the Liberal request. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2025.
