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Mono council hopes to fill holes in town’s fill bylaw

August 31, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

Mono council hopes to soon iron out any wrinkles in its bylaw that regulates the importation and use of aggregate fill in the town.

In an emailed question, resident Cliff Singer asked the town council when it met on Aug. 24 if it plans to revisit its fill importation bylaw because of a large-scale fill operation at a Lafarge pit on Sixth Line. And he asked what safeguards or testing are in place to ensure environmental integrity at such sites.

Mayor John Creelman said that, unfortunately, the municipality can’t control the importation of fill to a licenced site. That’s in the hands of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

“It is alarming to us,” he said. “We’ve made our views known on that and there is going to be a fill bylaw presented to council.”

Mark Early, the town’s CAO, said there is legislation on the books that enables municipalities to implement bylaws to regulate fill importation.

“The Municipal Act also specifically prohibits municipalities from having their fill bylaw impact on licenced aggregate pits,” Early said.

“Worse than that, there’s been a recent edict from the province,” Creelman said. “I think confirmation came in within the last few days of further concessions to the aggregate industry in terms of how they run their licenced pits and quarries.”

Mono resident Lewis Baker attended the council meeting. He said he recently witnessed dump trucks motoring along Airport Road into Mono, hauling gravel from Brampton. The materials were brought to a housing development in Mono.

Baker said he inquired further and was assured the fill was without contaminants.

In some of the loads, “the top layer was concrete in the two or three trucks that I saw,” Baker said. “What was underneath that, I have no idea.”

Creelman said, as far as he’s aware, the development site is heavily scrutinized and adheres to stringent regulations.

Early said he’d received a phone call from Baker about the matter. Baker reported what he’d thought was an infraction of the fill bylaw. Enforcement staff was dispatched to one of the two properties that have Dufferin County building permits.

“Our bylaw enforcement officer first-hand witnessed that it was crushed limestone being brought in and spread to build a driveway,” Early said. “It was less than 25 truck loads, or 250 cubic metres which, under our fill bylaw, did not need a specific permit to conduct that operation.”

That limestone was from the same source that provides the town with the same material it uses on municipal roads, he said.

“It was determined that there was an operation that was fully permitted within the town’s bylaw as crushed limestone is not available to be sourced within the town,” Early said.

He said the town didn’t insist on proof of the fill’s origin.

Creelman said one of the issues to be addressed when the fill bylaw is revisited is that the material must be locally sourced. But there needs to be provisions to allow, in specific circumstances, licenced suppliers from outside of town.

“It does beg the question of when you cannot find a local source, what do you then do?” the mayor said.

Creelman said the possible revision to the fill bylaw is in the offing.

“After all these years of talking about it,” Baker said.

“It is going to come before council and I can assure you it’s going to have a good, healthy debate,” Creelman said.

“I’ve been assured for years,” Baker said.

“Well, it is going to,” Creelman said.

“When is it destined to come forward?” Baker said.

Early said revisiting the fill bylaw has been on the council’s list of unfinished business.

“We’re still looking for council to indicate their priorities, after which staff will give estimated times,” Early said.

“That doesn’t fly anymore,” Baker said.

“Lewis, I can assure you we will get to it very soon,” Creelman said. “And I know you’ve heard that before and I share your frustration but, as you know, halfway through the process the province started tinkering with things. We were not happy with some of the materials that we received from our consultant. It was very complex and we wanted something a little bit more digestible and understandable by the people who are going to be affected by the fill bylaw.”

Baker suggested the town hire somebody to marshal issues that have fallen by the wayside among more pressing matters.

“Because we’ve been unable to handle this one for six years,” Baker said.

“That’s because we’re a very activist town and we have a lot on our plate and we continue to put things on our plate and we continue to get things done,” Creelman said.

The mayor said he would reach out to Baker with details about when the bylaw will be addressed in a future meeting.


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