Political support continues to grow in Dresden as the fight to prevent a dormant landfill from reopening continues.
Ted Hsu, the Liberal Critic for Rural and Agricultural Affairs and MPP for Kingston and the Islands, will attend a public meeting on Friday, hosted by the community group Dresden Together at the Old Czech Hall in Dresden. Hsu will meet with local residents to discuss the ongoing efforts to oppose the redevelopment of the landfill property at 29831 Irish School Rd., just outside the town of Dresden.
Hsu is the third high-profile politician making the trip to Dresden to show support for area residents; NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner made appearances earlier this summer.
“I want people in and around Dresden to know that this issue matters; it should matter to everyone else in Ontario,” said Hsu. “I want to help, and the way I can help is to get more people in the rest of the province to understand what is going on with the landfill.”
Hsu has continued to question the Ford government’s decision to remove comprehensive environmental assessment requirements for the landfill property through the controversial passage of Bill 5 earlier this year. The legislation will allow Mississauga-based company York1 Waste Solutions to move forward with the expansion and development of the site.
“There was a broken promise. There was a promise to do an environmental assessment, and then after the election, the government put out a bill that singles out the landfill and cancels the environmental assessment,” said Hsu. “The same thing that happened in Dresden could happen to somebody else, somewhere else in Ontario.”
The province has justified reversing its decision on the environmental assessment by citing the need to provide additional waste capacity in Ontario due to the threat of US tariffs impacting the province’s waste sector.
However, Hsu said the Ford government is using the tariff threat as an excuse.
“If that were the case, we would put forward a whole provincial strategy on how to make sure we have enough landfill [space] for our own needs,” he said. “But there’s no such strategy, just out of the blue in Bill 5, the government singles out this one landfill for expansion.”
Friday’s public event featuring MPP Hsu will run from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.
