Council is fast-tracking its response to Bill 5.
The Ontario government voted last Wednesday to pass the “Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025”, also known as Bill 5, despite pushback from several concerned groups, including those in Chatham-Kent.
In response, CK Administration asked that the notice of motion procedure be waived so that councillors could vote immediately on a course of action at Monday night’s council meeting.
“We would have liked to have a more formal presentation for council and for the community tonight,” said Director of Legal Services Dave Taylor.
“But recognizing just how quickly everything on Bill 5 moved last week, we wanted to take the opportunity to have a discussion tonight with council and to give some information to the community even though it’s under a short timeline.”
The motion urges the Ontario government to reverse its decision to allow a landfill north of Dresden unless a full environmental assessment (EA) is conducted.
Council voted unanimously to proceed. The motion outlines that if the provincial government refuses to overturn its decision, a term of reference will be required indicating that some of the more important studies included in an EA will be implemented.
These studies would include, but not be limited to, traffic, noise, ecological, and socio-economic impacts.
In this case, administration would also require that Indigenous communities be consulted, as well as the impact on the surrounding community and residents’ concerns be included.
Taylor noted Bill 5 has already received Royal Assent, meaning it is now law and the Irish School Road property is no longer subject to the Environment Assessment Act process.
“There are still some tools that are outlined in this motion that might be used to potentially stop the landfill. But with this provincial decision, the barriers are much higher,” explained Taylor.
Administration will also present a report to council, which will explore steps that could be taken to defend Dresden, including:
- Connecting with groups who are pursuing legal action
- Continuing to work with local, neighbouring, and Indigenous groups in opposition to the York1 dump.
- Submitting a request to the Federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change for the Dresden dump to be evaluated under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), which the Dresden Cares Group is currently pursuing.
- Pursuing an appeal through the Environment Bill of Rights.
- Retain a traffic engineer to review the impact on roads and produce recommendations on how to mitigate these impacts if the project proceeds.
- Gather experts to weigh in on the environmental impacts on water, wetlands, species, and the natural environment.
Councillors voted unanimously to proceed with these suggested steps, with Ward 4 councillor Rhonda Jubenville presenting a Defend Dresden sign for those interested in showing their opposition to the landfill.