June 15, 2005
For Immediate Release

DEVASTATING DECISION FOR THE ESCARPMENT
Hearing Board Approves Dufferin Aggregates Milton Quarry Expansion, Watchdog Groups to Appeal

In a decision released last week, hearing officers from the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) and the Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) approved an aggregate company's application to expand its quarry in Milton. The Dufferin Aggregates Milton Quarry is already the largest active quarry in Canada.

"This is a sad day for the Niagara Escarpment, but this is not yet a defeat," said Bradley Shaw, Executive Director of the Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment (CONE). "We will be filing an appeal to Cabinet."

In January 2001, Dufferin Aggregates filed applications with the Region of Halton, the Towns of Halton Hills and Milton, Conservation Halton and the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) for an 83-hectare expansion. The proposed expansion would enlarge the existing 468-hectare quarry by 18 percent. The company was supported in its application by all five bodies, despite an NEC staff report that recommended rejection.

In January 2004, the hearing by a Joint Board consisting of an OMB member and an ERT member, commenced. It concluded on November 10, 2004 after 82 hearing days. CONE and Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources (POWER), a Halton Hills-based community environmental group, opposed the application as a joint party -- the only party in opposition.

"This project, if allowed to proceed, could have serious adverse consequences for water resources, provincially significant wetlands and species-at-risk," said Barbara Halsall, Past President of POWER. "It would create a negative precedent for protection of the Niagara Escarpment."

"The conditions placed by the Joint Board on the approval of the quarry expansion are not enough to ensure the Escarpment's protection," added Shaw.

Despite approving this application, the hearing officers agreed with CONE and POWER that "the Niagara Escarpment is a unique area and that, for the most part, is to be protected and remain substantially in its natural state...The preservation of the Niagara Escarpment as a continuous natural corridor is in the public interest and no doubt is the very reason we have an approved [Niagara Escarpment Plan]."

Hearing Officer Donald Martyn wrote that "CONE and POWER should also be congratulated for the extraordinary effort that has been made to address quarrying in the context of Niagara Escarpment preservation."

CONE and POWER must file an appeal to Cabinet within 28 days of the decision, and will be doing so in early July.