Open letter in support of Climate Change delegation

April 29, 2021 · 0 Comments

I am writing in support of Jenni LeForestier’s delegation expressing the need to include the impact of the aggregate industry on Caledon’s Climate Action Plan and Official Plan.

I am in full support of her five formal requests, the inclusion of Indigenous consultation, and of an investigation into any possible unpaid back-taxes owed by aggregate companies in Caledon.

Further, I support the recommendations to the province from environmental groups as listed by Ms. LeForestier in her delegation and would like to see those recommendations adopted as part of Caledon’s plan for the future.

If Caledon is serious about climate, all quarrying in the UNESCO Biosphere and all mining below the water table will be permanently banned. Not to do so is to condemn future generations to a lifetime of irretrievably polluted water (among other ills) and demonstrates unspeakable callousness on the part of anyone who is blind to these consequences.

Mayor Thompson has many times pointed out that 80% of Caledon is Greenbelt. However, he has failed to follow this remark with the fact that, under current legislation, aggregate extraction and infrastructure such as 400-series highways are permitted in the Greenbelt, neither of which are green by any stretch of re-branding.

He also doesn’t point out that the majority of Town Council is quick to approve new pit applications while dismissing the concerns of tax-paying residents regarding their quality of life, communities, water quality, air quality, traffic, noise pollution, and loss of property value.

In response to such concerns, the OSSGA has had the unmitigated gall to call these residents “NIMBYs”, as if caring for one’s property, community, surrounding environment and biosphere, human health, and the future is selfish! I would be most interested to meet any quarry owner who delights in having a new quarry dug in their backyard. I would also like to know what will be done about the almost total lack of appropriate remediation in any of Caledon’s pits and quarries.

From the air, Caledon, especially in the west, looks like Swiss cheese – so full of holes that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish the green in the Greenbelt.

It is shameful that the two members of Town Council who are on the Boards of the CVC and TRCA have not brought forward concerns about aggregate and Climate Change in Caledon and that it falls to members of the community to point out this gaping hole in the Climate Action Plan. It is equally shameful that the aggregate industry is favoured over agriculture and food – especially when Ontario is one of the largest food growers and suppliers in North America, providing thousands of jobs, and is far more crucial to human life than gravel.

The Council’s blatant disregard for science, community, rational economics, and the preservation of food and water – surely the most essential concern of any right-thinking government – is incomprehensible.

Please do the right thing and demonstrate your integrity by implementing Ms. LeForestier’s requests.

Karen Alison

Terra Cotta