Windsor tomorrow9:36Walpole Chief Island First Nation speaks against Dresden Landfill
The fight for a rural landfill of the Southwest Rural of Ontario is back in the Center for Care, and has reached the highest levels of provincial policy this week.
Last summer, the residents of the Dresde area in Chatham-Kent thought they had won a victory. The conservative government said that any movement to reopen a long latent landfill would require a complete environmental assessment.
But that can be changing.
In April, the province presented PROJECT 5 – THE PROTECT Ontario Unleashing our Economy Law. It includes a language that would accelerate the project.
That refers to the head of the first Walpole Island nation, Leela Thomas, who calls the proposed “devastating” bill.
The reserve is downstream of the landfill along the Sydenham River. The property is also within the traditional territory of the Anishinabek people.
“It seems that our voices do not matter, especially when it comes to environmental problems and our role as land administrators,” said Thomas.
“It is not a great question because we are protecting people. We are protecting the earth. We are protecting the environment. We are protecting support not only from the people of the first nations, but of all.”
Thomas says that his constitutional rights are being ignored.
“That, for me, is [environmental] racism.”
Thomas says it seems bad planning on behalf of the province, when it comes to the ability of the landfill.
“They knew there were going to be problems with landfills in the province, and now that there are … with the rates that are using that as an appearance to boost these landfills.”
The Amnesty International Human Rights Defense Group says that the change of the province of course in the bill 5 threatens indigenous rights and erodes environmental protections.
“The creation of special economic zones where critical provincial laws, including those that protect the endangered species, clean water and consultation with indigenous nations, can be suspended to accelerate development,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, general secretary of Amnesty International of Canada.
“We cannot accumulate Ontario by dragging the rights of indigenous nations and the natural environment in which we all depend and share.”
Capacity and Trump problems cited by Premier
The Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford, says that his government is committed to expanding the landfill site due to capacity problems and current relations between the United States.
“We are trusting the United States again,” Ford told reporters on Tuesday.
“Here we go again. Forty percent of all the trash is reduced to the US.
Ford says that the existing site must be expanded.
“I will not trust President Trump anymore. We have to be responsible for our own garbage. We will continue to build capacity in that. I say that we are going to close electricity. He says that we are going to close your garbage.”
In a statement to CBC News, the province said the project would still be submitted to “extensive environmental processes” and would continue to be subject to “strong provincial supervision.”
‘Give me a break’
The opposition leader, Marit Stiles, of the NDP, says that Dresden’s landfill was something that Ontario conservatives never pretended to prevent.
“Give me a break here,” he said Tuesday while talking about Queen’s Park.
“We have seen it again and again. The legislation they have introduced creates more and more opportunities for the Government to make corrupt agreements in the Greenbelt style to benefit the owners and large corporations and developers, and I think that is what we will continue to see here.”
Recently, Kingston MPP TED HSU asked the Ontario Integrity Commissioner to investigate an alleged connection between Prime Minister Ford, two of the members of his cabinet and a former minister of the proposed chatham-ket side.
Stiles says he is not sure if the complaint will comply with the standards of an investigation.
“Unfortunately, the integrity commissioner has a very narrow reach.”
Stiles believes that the integrity commissioner wants the complaint to be extended.
“But … just because it doesn’t happen … That smell test does not mean that it is correct. The prime minister promised that he was not going to let that landfill occur. He broke his promise to people in Dresde.”
What is at risk
The project site is adjacent to a stream and a river, a vital spawning land of more than 80 endangered species, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
Thomas says that there are many unknowns without having rigorous environmental and health evaluations, and not only for his Anishinabek people, but also for surrounding communities.
“There will be construction and demolition debris that will have asbestos that will be filtered in drinking water,” said Walpole Island chief.
“That river is reduced to our communities.”
