James Pasternak, chair of Toronto's infrastructure and environment committee. Landfill is an economic opportunity. It employs dozens, if not hundreds of people. It generates a high level of commercial property tax. It usually has spinoff industries. It does have its benefits. New landfills in Ontario can take years to get approved and built. Staff at a recent Toronto city council meeting said that the city's main landfill, the Green Lane Landfill outside London, Ont.
The Ontario Waste Management Association, which represents waste management companies and municipalities, estimated similarly that the province will reach its landfill capacity by — 12 years from now. Given the amount of time it takes to get new landfills built, that means that landfill operators and cities have to propose new landfills in the coming months to ensure they come online before the province runs out of space, industry players say.
Crombie said that the association would have liked the provincial environment minister to have ultimate approval authority over landfills, while including a big — but not final — say for local municipalities. A major landfill project in Zorra, Ont.
The landfill site is about eight years into its approvals process. Critics have raised environmental concerns related to landfills, particularly with respect to possible groundwater contamination. It's a concern that Calvin Lakhan, a waste researcher at York University, can understand. With that being said, there is a very long … history of landfills, actually, despite being built to these standards, for whatever reason, have failed.
Lakhan said that while unforeseen failures mean landfills are not per cent risk-free, the need for landfills means some amount of risk has to be accepted. Instead of asking governments already making necessary investments in health care, education and infrastructure to shoulder this burden, waste management is something the private sector can handle. The key to avoiding a garbage crisis in Ontario is to recognize that a problem is looming and figure out where the pressure points in the system are and how to ease them.
Government and industry must work together to improve our current system, as safe and effective waste management is critical in building a stronger Ontario. Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www. By Rocco Rossi Opinion Thu. Except we did not. Report an error. Journalistic Standards. About The Star. And building new energy-from-waste facilities is fraught with the same political difficulties as constructing a new landfill.
Wanting local approval for new landfills is understandable. And very few landfills are ever built without local community support. But Bill creates a new, unprecedented layer of red tape: requiring the explicit approval of neighbouring towns and cities, not just the municipality where the landfill is to be located.
This means that Markham can halt a project in Pickering, and Toronto can veto a project in Vaughan or Mississauga — and vice versa. Ontario needs to face up to its garbage crisis. Every bag of garbage we throw out brings us one step closer to running out of landfill space. Recycling, composting and energy recovery are important solutions, yet leave us with millions of tonnes of garbage every year.
The environmentally safe, cost-effective and reliable disposal option for this growing amount of garbage is made-in-Ontario landfills. Our landfill capacity deadline of will arrive even sooner — by , just eight years away — should the U. Landfills ensure waste is managed responsibly, not illegally dumped or tossed into our public spaces and natural environment.
Landfills really are critical infrastructure, necessary for the economic and environmental well-being of our province.
Changes to the environmental assessment process should remove barriers to landfill projects, not create new ones. Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the Financial Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
0コメント