For the first time in several years, the company trying to reopen a dormant landfill near Dresden has scheduled a meeting with Chatham-Kent officials.
During an update to Chatham-Kent Council on Monday, Deputy CAO Dave Taylor said a planning consultant employed by York1 Waste Solutions has “finally” contacted the municipality about its proposed landfill development project at 29831 Irish School Rd. just outside of Dresden.
The meeting between the two parties is scheduled to take place sometime in mid-November.
The proposed landfill development has faced fierce opposition from Dresden residents, the municipality, environmental groups, and provincial opposition parties.
Taylor noted that the municipality has not heard directly from the “principals” York1 and this is the first time the municipality has had communications with the company in years.
“We have not heard from them since they put forward the applications to the provincial government that we actually saw what the scope of this application was,” said Taylor.
The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada recently denied the municipality’s application a review of the proposed landfill project under the Impact Assessment Act.
As part of the Impact Assessment process, Chatham-Kent and York1 were required to submit information to the federal government. Both the municipality and the Mississauga-based company disagree on several details surrounding the landfill project.
“[York1] suggested that they’ve been regularly meeting with the municipality. They suggested that the municipality was supportive of this project. Both of those [statements] are inaccurate,” said Taylor. “There have not been regular meetings.”
York1 Spokesperson Laryssa Waler refuted the municipality’s position and said early discussions with municipal leadership and staff were constructive.
“We have engaged the municipality repeatedly since 2021 —including meetings and calls with the mayor, councillors, and senior staff throughout 2022 and 2023 — and we again requested a meeting,” said Waler in an email to CKXS News. “York1 reflected the substance of early, constructive discussions in which the municipality asked us to limit to non‑hazardous [construction and demolition waste] — which we adopted —and discussed a host‑community framework.”
York1 purchased the long-dormant landfill on Irish School Road property in December of 2022.
Taylor noted that early discussions do not constitute municipal support and that the company has not appeared before CK Council.
The municipality has previously stated that York1 will need council’s approval for land use, zoning and official plan changes to move forward with its plans for the landfill.
Waler said York1 has encouraged the mayor, council and municipal staff to take part in a meeting with the project’s planning and engineering team to review design safeguards, monitoring, truck‑routing controls, and community‑benefit commitments.
“We are committed to a transparent process, continuous engagement with residents, the municipality, and Indigenous communities, and to building a recycling facility that reduces environmental risk,” said Waler.
York1 is planning to construct and operate a waste disposal and regenerative recycling facility at the Irish School Road property that would hold up to 1.62 million cubic meters of non-hazardous solid construction and demolition waste. The Mississauga-based company also plans to expand the existing waste transfer station from 0.8 hectares to 25 hectares, to accept up to 3,000 tonnes of recyclable materials and 1,000 tonnes of non-hazardous solid waste per day.