Re: Residents protest ‘secret' aggregate summit, April 4.

It is not surprising that the Ford government is trying to do and end run around protections put in place to regulate the aggregate industry.  This industry is already treated with excessive leniency; mined below the water table when license said no – oops! don't want to pay for rehabilitation of a spent pit – unload it and walk away.  Got some extra fill (contaminated or not) that you need to get rid of? Put it in your pit and don't worry, no one is going to ask about permits.  The amount of tax paid by this industry is also lacking.

To insist as they do in their Securing Access report that significant woodlands can be replaced and enhanced on the landscape with no negative impact and that woodlands are a renewable resource is ludicrous.  A mature forest takes 100+ years to grow, never mind the destruction of flora and fauna inhabiting it.  That is just one alarm bell.   There is the monumentally serious issue of our ground water which unfettered below water table mining and contaminated fill depositing are extreme threats.  Everything about this meeting should scare the crap out of people.  Bill 66 – Schedule 10 all over again.

Joanne Whyte

Alton ON