Dresden and area residents are racing against the clock to make sure their voices are heard before province puts them on mute over a proposed landfill site.
A decision by the Ford government will drastically reduce public input and environmental regulation on the potential 35-hectare (86-acre) landfill less than one kilometre from the town on Irish School Road.
Some 400 people filled the Ken Houston Memorial Agricultural Centre in a meeting organized by Chatham-Kent to urge citizens to aid the municipality’s fight to require the site to undergo an environmental assessment.
The province had promised an assessment in 2024, but did an about-face in legislation introduced late last month.
The municipality’s director of legal services, Dave Taylor, said residents have until May 17 to submit comments to the Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO) through this site to let the province realize the extent of local opposition.
“Nobody wants this,” Taylor said. “We’re all on the same team.”
The municipality has hired engineering and legal firms to fight reduced oversight on the project, which would operate on a 24-hour basis with as many as 200 trucks per day dumping garbage near the town.
It has also launched a Defend Dresden website with up-to-date and background information.
Engineer David MacGillivray said that without a full environmental assessment process (which he said is normal for such a project), community opinion is shut out.
“You lose that voice.”
Chiefs and council members from the Delaware and Walpole Island First Nations attended the meeting to oppose the current plan.
Leela Thomas, Chief of Walpole Island, drew a standing ovation when she told the crowd that those behind the project “know exactly what they’re doing and they’re doing shadiness to push through their agenda. We’ll be here to support you all the way until we stop this thing from happening.”
Dresden CARED, a community group organized to fight the project, had a steady stream of citizens submitting ERO comments throughout the meeting.
Spokesman Stefan Premdas said the meeting went “really well. We had wonderful attendance.”
Wenday Vercauteren of Dresden Together said her advocacy group will be at the Old Czech Hall on May 7 at 7 p.m. to provide additional opportunities to file their complaints with the ERO.
