Open letter top MPP Sylvia Jones

December 8, 2022 · 0 Comments

OUR READERS WRITE

Annette Groves’ 36% spread in votes over those of Jennifer Innis were clearly awarded in large part to her vigorous and vocal determination to prevent the Brazilians from harshly impacting our environment, risking the Credit Watershed in your constituency, and harming our community with its proposal to quarry the dolostone.

This is stone that cannot be excavated as the gravel and sand pits of the community do – this stone has to be blasted.

The thrashing of Innis will not be lost on anybody standing for office in this constituency and we shall be looking to you to use your position as our MPP, and your richly deserved status as the Deputy Premier, to persuade both the Premier and your peers to oppose the proposed Votorantim quarry. The Brazilian proposal is not a pit; it is eight-hours-a-day of blasting rock with a litany of side effects that go with the disruption within your constituency.

There is compelling historical evidence from Mike Harris’ eventual concession on the Oak Ridges Moraine, embraced by Conservatives, that thwarting environmental destruction paved the way for Members of the Provincial Parliament to be rewarded for their responsibility.

Members of the party will not forget that sensitivity and humanity are not absent from our principles.

Adopting the Harris mantle on the Votorantim matter will go a considerable distance in defusing the incredulity of the community about, and its dismay at, our current government’s position on 413 as well as its [limit] of the obligations and rights of Conservation Authorities under the Act with the current government’s concessions to developers.

Prohibiting Votorantim to quarry will ascertain that the position of the current provincial government is that the imperilling of the Headwaters’ equilibrium is not immaterial. Your position on this matter, visibly and publicly announced, is essential for the voters of this constituency to know.

The Votorantim proposal is not an irrelevant side issue affecting a tiny corner of your constituency. It is a major issue in its broader implications of the duty of care of government at all levels for its people – a concern for which the current Premier of Ontario has already caused himself, and our party, significant damage.

That may partly be undone were development be steered to locales where it will impact areas of less-established environmental sensitivity, saving the Credit Watershed, or where it does not increase safety risks and entitlement to peace for citizens, none of which shall result should Votorantim prevail.

It would be heinous to suggest that any members at any of the levels of governments in our country would be susceptible to persuasion by the Brazilians – the same “persuasion” that deservedly, but insufficiently, punished was embraced by our own SNC-Lavalin. Heinous, but a risk that we cannot afford to overlook.

We greatly look forward to your response and that it parallels Annette Groves’ unequivocal position.

David G P Allan

Caledon