- Leeanna Pendergast, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga
The Toronto Star reports, “(Ontario) Liberal MPP Leeanna Pendergast rallied locals (at the Grand River in Woolwich Township) Tuesday in a bid to stop plans for three aggregate pits — one of which would come within 200 metres of the (popular and scenic) Kissing Bridge. …86 aggregate pits (are) already in the picturesque Waterloo Region township, with 8 more applications under review. …She asked for a review of the provincial Aggregate Resources Act, a provincewide plan for aggregate extraction and better protection for Ontario’s prime farmland.”
The last review of the Aggregate Resources Act was done more than two decades ago.
The Kitchener Record adds, “Guelph-based Capital Paving (is proposing) to construct a gravel pit just 180 metres from the end of the historic covered crossing — the only one of its kind left in Ontario. …The Ministry of Natural Resources has received more than 130 unresolved objections to the plan, including environmental damage, effects on the water table, noise and traffic.”
In Ontario, the Council of Canadians is opposing the gravel quarry proposed in Melancthon (about 100 kilometres north of Toronto), http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7944. We have also expressed concern about the Wawa gravel quarry on Lake Superior, http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=1544 and the proposed Nelson Aggregates gravel quarry at Mount Nemo near Burlington, http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=5903. In October 2008, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario highlighted in his annual report the damage done by gravel extraction to aquifers, http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=1933. In Alberta, our Red Deer chapter was part of a successful campaign to stop the approval of a gravel quarry on an alluvial aquifer, http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4680.
Gravel is sold in Ontario for about $8 a tonne with a 10 cents a tonne royalty paid to the province.
