Laneways to Nowhere: the Community and the Mega-Quarry

7/31/2019 Laneways to Nowhere: the Community and the Mega-Quarry

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Laneways to nowhere the communityand the mega quarry

July 6, 2012 00:07:00Dale Hamilton, Community Editorial Board

I have nothing against aggregate quarries necessarily.

We used to call them gravel pits, and as the daughter of anEramosa Township road superintendent and former municipalcouncillor, I saw first-hand how much gravel it takes to build andmaintain roads. And as a descendent of Irish stonemasons, I

have an appreciation for the importance of limestone in thebuilding trades.

But whats going on with the mega-quarry proposal inMelancthon Township, near Shelburne, is not about youraverage gravel pit.

If approved, it would be the biggest quarry ever in Canada deeper than Niagara Falls and would eat up some of the best

remaining agricultural land in the province (comparable to whatlies beneath suburban sprawl in the Greater Toronto Area).

And the quarrys proponent, The Highland Companies, is backedby an American hedge fund worth more than $20 billion.Opponents say that any hiccup in their elaborate below water-table excavation plans could put four watersheds and thedrinking water of more than a million people at risk.

Rehabilitating the pit would mean pumping huge quantities ofwater in perpetuity, an ambitious commitment in a world wherecorporations come and go at the whim of the stock market.

During the Canada Day weekend, I went on a bus tour of theproposed site. Dont imagine an air-conditioned coach it was aschool bus featuring plus-30 C temperatures, even with the


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windows open. We were a diverse group, including hardcorelocals, people whod driven in from across southwestern Ontarioand a contingent of Raging Grannies, a movement of olderwomen who sing self-styled protest songs.

Our MC for the tour was a township man named Lyle Parsons, aformer farmer who sold to The Highland Companies convincedby them that their plan was to grow potatoes. Parsons startedhaving suspicions when Highland began drilling test wells thatwere far too elaborate for the mere irrigation of spuds.

Parsons is a walking Google search on the issue of the mega-quarry. But its not all hard facts. He also feels it. His house and

barn were one of several bulldozed by Highland, resulting in sadovergrown laneways to nowhere, which he pointed out on thetour, naming the families who used to live at the end of formerlytree-lined laneways. It was like listening to a veteran read a list ofthe war dead. He passed around pictures of his former farm,telling us in a wavering but controlled voice that he never wouldhave sold to them if he knew then what he knows now.

Highland maintains that the farm buildings they demolished weredilapidated. Parsons response is that Highland removed thewindows and let the weather in, so of course they weredilapidated.

About halfway through our bus tour, I noticed one of the RagingGrannies slumped over onto her cane and one of her fellowGrannies trying to dab her forehead with a wet cloth. Afterconsulting with Parsons, I called 911 on my cell and the upshot

was that we spent almost an hour on the 20th Side Road ofMelancthon Township waiting for an ambulance from Shelburne.Thankfully, the ailing granny, who is 78, came to and seemedrelatively stable.

So we used the ambulance waiting time for deeper


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conversations, not only about the mega-quarry, but also aboutthe need for structural changes to the Aggregate Resource Actand the Ministries of the Environment and Natural Resources.Parsons spoke eloquently of the inherent tension between

resource development and resource protection. Someone spokeabout Ontarios abysmal record with recycling gravel, and therewas general cynicism about Highlands post-extraction plans tofarm the pit floor.

Shortly before the ambulance arrived, a woman dressed inLululemon gear (Im about 90 per cent sure shes a kinda-famous Canadian TV personality) announced that shed justtweeted about our tour and was immediately being followed onTwitter by Broadgate Consulting in New York. Followed cansound so sinister.

A quick Google search reveals that Broadgate is a Wall Streetconsulting firm offering (to quote their website) institutionaltargeting and communications for private equity firms. Theirparent company, DF King Worldwide, lists among their ratheroblique services, managing relationships with groups of

activists. In Melancthon Township, it remains to be seen whatthey mean by managing relationships, compared to buildingrelationships.

The bus driver advised the tweeting TV personality to becareful, meaning, presumably that these Americans playhardball. Just then, the local fire truck arrived to help until theambulance could get there. When the Raging Granny(diagnosed with heat stroke) had been whisked away to the

hospital, one of the volunteer firefighters asked what the tourwas about and offered his opinion: You cant beat big money.This quarrys gonna happen.

But what that firefighter might not realize is that the opposingforces are also formidable.


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Theres money in them there hills and I dont mean limestone.Opposition forces include people living along local gravel back-roads who have money and/or community organizing smarts.You cant underestimate the importance of the community-

building component in these kinds of issues. We certainlylearned that in Eramosa Township in the early 1990s when westopped a major housing development on farmland.

One thing is for sure: the mega-quarry issue will be of mega-importance, forcing us to take a deep look at our deepestpriorities. And whatever the outcome, one can only hope that theupcoming battle will also result in much-needed changes to the

Aggregate Resources Act, the Ontario Municipal Board processand improve the functioning of governments as they attempt tobalance development and protection of our natural resources.

Dale Hamilton is a member of the Guelph Mercury CommunityEditorial Board.

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Laneways to Nowhere: the Community and the Mega-Quarry