By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

With thousands travelling through Alton on their way to the 2026 RBC Canadian Open held at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley this past weekend, they were met with a slightly different sight on their way in on Saturday.

More than a dozen protestors stood outside the golf course, protesting the proposed Votorantim/CBM mega-quarry and its ties to the course.

The local community group, Forks of the Credit Preservation Group (FCPG), organized the Day of Action.

FCPG chair David Sylvester, standing outside the course on June 13, said their focus that day was about water.

The proposed 645-acre mega quarry involves the use of controlled explosives to harvest up to 2.5 million tonnes of bedrock each year. 

For the proposed quarry to extract below the water table, they must pump out the groundwater to maintain a dry working bed.

Sylvester notes the application documents say it will be upwards of half a million litres of groundwater a day.

He refers to the President of TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, Chris Humeniuk, as an “active partner” in the operations, “he agreed to take this half million litres of water discharged daily, and pump it into his golf course holding ponds,” said Sylvester.

The FCPG fears the environmental impacts of this decision, saying the runoff will flow into the Credit River.

“Tthe impacts on the ecosystem of the river would be devastating,” adds Sylvester.

Another issue, with the application, Sylvester said, is the impact on private wells in the area. 

“There are over 100 residences, the application documents acknowledge that a quarter or more of those private wells are going to have troubles when they start pumping their groundwater,” he said.

After holding a similar day of action the previous year, Sylvester said it is a “marathon not a sprint.”

“We know that they are hoping that the opposition to this proposal will diminish and fade away. We're going to be certain that that's simply not going to happen. We'll be there right to the end,” said Sylvester.

He adds they have one clear message of the day.

“If Chris Humeniuk chose not to accept this discharged groundwater onto his property, we wouldn't be here today,” said Sylvester. “We would be quite satisfied with that decision, and we would be very grateful.”

In the FCPG email to announce the day of action, they noted “the mega-quarry proposal conflicts with the objectives of Golf Canada's environmental stewardship goals and main sponsor RBC's climate action policies. It makes sense to share our Water concerns while the RBC Canadian Open event is happening.”

“Grumpy,” a member of the Chapleau Cree Fox Lake community, was participating in the Day of Action with one simple message: “Water is Life.”

“My hope is that people get to appreciate the vital component that water is in their life,” he said, adding that water is often seen as an unlimited resource, when in reality, “it is not.”

“I want people to appreciate the value of water,” he continued. “There's two things that happen with the initiation of life. One is we start in the dark, and the other is we start in water, and to be healthy and continue to grow, we have to experience dark, and we have to experience water.”

He said people in Southern Ontario are often unaware of the water shortage many communities are currently facing.

“I would like to see water preserved,” he said. “I know this may sound silly, but I would like to see it become one of the most expensive things you have to purchase.”

“Everybody thinks that water is available on a renewable cycle. But in digging this hole, all the water table is disrupted,” he added.

Following the event, Humeniuk addressed the issue in a statement released to The Citizen.

“We are aware this past weekend's demonstration this week by the FCPG, who we have invited on multiple occasions to engage in collaborative discussions about their concerns, and why we believe they are unfounded,” he said. “Regrettably, this group has chosen to reject our invitations.

“Nobody has more invested in our community than we do, and the last thing we desire is to harm the very place my family and our business calls home. Unfortunately, the FCPG has chosen to repeatedly mislead the public with inaccurate speculation and attack me personally in an effort described on their own website as one designed to attract the attention of the ‘big media' covering the RBC Canadian Open.

“We will continue to celebrate Caledon's moment in the spotlight this past week.”