Forks of the Credit Preservation Group hosts Green Party leader on quarry tour

Forks of the Credit Preservation Group leads July 17 tour

By ZACHARY ROMAN

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The leader of the Green Party of Ontario is against a proposed blasting quarry in Caledon. 

On July 17, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner visited Caledon to tour the site of a proposed quarry in the Cataract/Alton area. 

“I've been here in the past at rallies opposing the Caledon mega-quarry but today I've had the opportunity to spend a bit of extra time seeing the massive scale of this quarry… just to highlight how this quarry makes no sense and isn't compatible with this area,” said Schreiner.

He said it was worrying to see how much prime farmland would be lost if the quarry was built. Schreiner also shared concerns with how the quarry would impact the local watershed.

The Forks of the Credit Preservation Group (FCPG), which has been leading opposition to the quarry, was the group that invited Schreiner to tour the quarry site.

“Everybody I know who's concerned about quarries knows that we need aggregate to build roads, transit, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, homes… but we want to make sure we do it in a way that doesn't threaten our own personal health and the health of our communities, water and farmland,” said Schreiner. “We should only be licensing enough aggregate to meet demand now and in the future and not exceed that because of the threats it poses to our quality of life.”

Schreiner said he was blown away by the scale of the proposed quarry and the number of different land types it threatens. He said it would impact woodlots, wetlands, prime farmland, and the Credit River. 

Schreiner said it's important to use his platform to speak out and that Ontario's Aggregate Resources Act as a whole is flawed. Something he would like to see more of in Ontario is the use of recycled aggregate.

“I've been calling for a moratorium on new pit and quarry licenses, or expanded applications, until we've done a study on how much aggregate has already been licensed and how much aggregate we need so we can move forward in an informed way,” said Schreiner.

Schreiner has also put forward a bill that aims to ban any new pits and quarries in the Greenbelt.