Adams Mine/Toronto Garbage 

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Adams Mine trashed once and for all

by Darlene Wroe
Speaker Reporter

DISTRICT — A project that had been discussed since the late 1980s was conclusively ended in June of this year.
The provincial government passed legislation that ended all possibilities for the Adams Mine project to proceed, at least while this government is in power. However, all work will have to be started over from scratch if an attempt is made to resurrect it at some point in the future, noted Timiskaming-Cochrane Liberal MPP David Ramsay in making the announcement in June.
A vote at Queen’s Park saw 63 votes in favour of the legislation and 18 opposed, all opposition votes by Progressive Conservative MPPs.
The Act prohibited the use of the Adams Mine as a landfill site, and revoked all existing approvals related to the project. All applications under consideration by the Ontario Ministry of Environment were also voided, and any agreement to sell Crown land adjacent to the site to the Adams Mine owner was also terminated. The Act also prevented any legal action against the Ontario government as a result of the legislation.
The owner of the Adams Mine property was to be compensated for the purchase of the property, surveys, studies, testing, engineering services, legal services, marketing, promotion, property taxes, and costs associated with seeking government approvals and acquisition of Crown land.
The legislation amended the Environmental Protection Act to prevent the use of any other lake more than one hectare in size from being used as a landfill.
The Adams Mine Lake Act, 2004, took effect June 17, 2004.
The decision closed a perceived door for a solution to manage waste produced in Metro Toronto and other large urban communities in Ontario. With that came increased concerns from communities in southern and southwestern Ontario that their landfills might be used as a backup should Toronto be prevented from shipping its waste to Michigan.
Although there were two public meetings leading up to the legislation being passed, neither was held in the Temiskaming area. The venues were Windsor and Milton.

STRAINS DIVIDING THE DISTRICT
The legislation not only brought an end to the project, but brought an end to strains that had been dividing the district and communities as they struggled with the pros and cons of the project.
It was also noted by Charlie Angus, one of the project opposition organizers, that the fight against the proposal “helped people across Canada realize that we had to find a better way of dealing with waste.”
The province introduced a discussion paper on 60 per cent waste diversion in April.
Leading up to the legislation which ended the Adams Mine project, local opponents had been sitting on tenterhooks.
They knew that the area MPP David Ramsay who had supported the opposition side to the project, had been on their side during the fight. But when Mr. Ramsay was reelected in the fall of 2003 and his party took power from the Provincial Conservative government, Mr. Ramsay was appointed to the position of Minister of Natural Resources. Mr. Ramsay then was obliged to observe legalities regarding the process, and was unable to voice his opposition to the project which was still continuing with the details of moving forward, which included negotiations with Mr. Ramsay’s ministry for the purchase of Crown land.
Opponents were becoming concerned that the project seemed to be continuing even though the Liberal government was in power.
Opponents called on Premier Dalton McGuinty to subject the project to a further environmental review. A five-year study had been proposed to determine the safety of the site, and opponents wanted that study to be done. However, the owners of the site were moving toward a start-up of construction work at the site for 2004.
As the winter progressed anxieties on both sides of the debate grew.
When the legislation was introduced, celebrations by opponents abounded, and in the past year, the rifts caused by the project in the district have been healing.

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