Nelson Aggregate Abandons Public Review of Quarry Expansion on Mt. Nemo: Abrupt Exit Comes after considerable Public Expense

By Staff

October 7th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Nelson Aggregates filed notice of an appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) abruptly abandoning the unfinished government Joint Agency Review Team (JART) review of their application for expansion of the crushed rock quarry on Mount Nemo.

Halton Region, the City of Burlington, Conservation Halton, and the Niagara Escarpment Commission, and residents all identified, through JART, serious technical issues with the quarry expansion proposal, and are not yet satisfied with the responses from Nelson. Considerable time and public expense have been invested in JART, but Nelson clearly did not want to see the process through to the end.

This part of the quarry is nearing its end of life as a source of quality aggregate.

“It’s discouraging the applicant has chosen to appeal rather than continue to work through the multi-agency review process” said Marianne Meed Ward, Mayor of Burlington. “This severely limits the ability of the public to participate, unless they have significant resources to attend the tribunal as a party. This also takes decision-making out of the hands of locally elected officials, our staff, and the community and shifts it to a single, appointed tribunal member. It’s yet another example of why the Ontario Land Tribunal needs to be reformed and ultimately eliminated in favour of democratic, evidence-based decision-making, especially on matters such as these that would have permanent, lasting impacts on the rural community”, added Meed Ward.

An artists rendering of what a park could look like once the quarry pit was allowed to fill with water and become a public park

Nelson Aggregates told the Gazette earlier in the month that the process was proving to be very slow and that most of the problems rested with the Burlington Planning department where responses to the numerous documents that had been filed were not getting completed in a reasonable amount of time.

Schematic that shows existing quarry size and location and what Nelson Aggregate wants to add.

Nelson was getting ready to announce who they were going to name as the operators of the park; had that happened, or when it happens would mean that the city of Burlington would be taken out of the loop and have no input on what was offered at the park, assuming it was complete.

David Donnelly, an environmental lawyer who was heavily involved in the 2012 hearings said: “Once Nelson agreed to proceed with JART, the public had every right to expect the Nelson quarry application would be put forward at a public meeting and to a vote of Councils on the JART review of the proposed Official Plan amendments. Nelson has a right to trigger this appeal and waste government time and taxpayers’ money, just as Council has the right to ask the province to now shut it down.

“Nelson lost at the Ontario Joint Board in 2012 fair and square and now they have deliberately ‘short-circuited’ the JART public review process, by filing the appeal to the OLT.”

 

 

 

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

7 comments to Nelson Aggregate Abandons Public Review of Quarry Expansion on Mt. Nemo: Abrupt Exit Comes after considerable Public Expense

  • Tom Muir

    These things, especially like this one, take a long time because there is so much due diligence needed, by so many responsible agencies, put in place to protect the public interests, and they are all overloaded by the development juggernaut of today.

    Too much demand meets too little supply, and the City planners are responsible for coordinating most if not all of the agency reviews, and assembling a responsible assessment and recommendation report. That requires proponent cooperation, which these days, in the era of the Growth Plan mentality and the rise to power of OLT, is in short supply as well. You can see that right here.

    OLT acts as a centralized dictatorial control mechanism that provides proponents an off-ramp from due public planning processes developers and cuts planning and the public right out of the process. It short circuits everything and puts a lengthy, largely off-line quasi-legal appeal and Hearing process.

    Hired consultants and lawyers replace the open public planning process with everyone in, and democratic decisions, with what is usually a single OLT tribunal member who decides what the permissions will be.

    This is just another example of why the OLT is a vast, delaying, costly, undemocratic and wasteful control apparatus that needs to be abolished.

    • Dave Turner

      Is there no recourse via the courts to challenge OLT decisions ?

      • Tom Muir

        THere is a means to appeal the OLT decision in court.

        THe City tried that on Adi martha, but lost. And I seem to recall another case of City appeal that lost, but I’m not sure and looking for it now is not on.

        So there is an appeal route. Doint it is another serious matter.

  • perryb

    Another good reason to terminate the OLT, and a reason why the Ford government refuses to do so. Where is our MPP on this issue? Where is our MPP on ANY issue?

    • Mary Hill

      Where is our MPP. Just like McKenna before her, she’s just filling the backbenches and only speaking when spoken to by Dougie

  • G.B.Richards

    I don’t blame them ,These processes seem to take far too long for a business that has operated for decades on the site.

  • I firmly believe there is a legal process available to the City to address this abandonment of the established review process. I have committed to give this my undivided attention immediately after Oct 24th if given the mandate to do so.. The city gives up too easily.