Aggregate, hydro costs rule Orangeville debate

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Published on Thursday, 29 May 2014 18:51

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 MPP hopefuls  

Chris Halliday (Left to right) Green Party candidate Karren Wallace, Progressive Conservative candidate Sylvia Jones, NDP candidate Rehya Yazbek and Liberal candidate Bobbie Daid squared off in a provincial election debate in Orangeville on Tuesday (May 27

Aggregate issues hijacking a provincial election debate in Orangeville?

That would be a given in Shelburne, but revisiting the mega-quarry fight and new threats were the pièce de résistance at the first of two election debates hosted by the Greater Dufferin Area Chamber of Commerce (GDACC) on Tuesday (May 27).

Question after question about the Aggregate Resources Act (ARA), a piece of provincial legislation perceived to be flawed by many of those in attendance, were put to those vying for the MPP seat in Dufferin-Caledon.

“It really, really is the fox managing the chicken coop,” said Liberal candidate Bobbie Daid, claiming aggregate companies have too much power in the process. “We need to re-evaluate this slippery fox.”

Green Party candidate Karren Wallace blasted incumbent Sylvia Jones for what she perceived as a “lack of representation” on aggregate issues at Queen’s Park.

“Over and over again, the people of Dufferin find ourselves playing whack-a-mole with pits, quarries, turbines and developers,” Wallace said. “Standing alone without a voice from our elected MPP.”

Not surprisingly, Jones disagreed. As a member of the all-party standing committee that recently reviewed the ARA, Jones said she has supported the use of recycled aggregate and expanding compensation rights beyond host municipalities to those located along aggregate haul routes.

“I want to see the ARA tightened up, improved, but I do want that process to be in place,” Jones said. “The process does have value.”

Daid was skeptical of recycled aggregate. As Wallace claimed, it has “kicked a door open” for aggregate operators to empty a pit, fill it with construction waste and say they plan to recycle it some day.

“Recycling sounds good in theory,” Daid said. “But I don’t want it. I don’t think my neighbours want it. I don’t think the neighbours next to the pit want it.”

NDP candidate Rehya Yazbek noted her party’s platform seeks to protect agriculture above all else. She said land should be used for agriculture before aggregate extraction.

“Farmers have much more potential doing something they love ... than all the tons of problems that come along with ripping aggregate out of the ground,” Yazbek said.

The Green party aims to protect Class 1 farmland and water sources from development. “No turbines, no aggregate, no nothing,” Wallace said.

It would also fight to see municipalities and residents gain intervener status funding through the fees quarry and pit operators pay for aggregate extraction.

Jones wants legislation changed so local MPPs are notified when of items posted on the Environmental Registry in their ridings.

“I found out the same way everybody else when the rumours started circulated,” Jones said, referring to the mega-quarry.

Wallace noted Jones’ staff could have brought the issue to her attention earlier, rather than spending time researching “all the pancake breakfasts” for her to attend.

“Find a pancake breakfast,” Jones quipped back later in the evening. “They’re a great way to talk to people.”

Progressive Conservative (PC) leader Tim Hudak’s Million Jobs Plan also yielded some attention from Jones’ opponents.  Daid said it is a concern resonating with people at the doors she knocks on.

“One thing the Liberal party is not doing is cutting 100,000 public service jobs,” she said. “It is not economically viable, nor is it responsible.”

A $12.5 billion deficit, at a time when the province’s third largest expense is paying interest on debt isn’t economically responsible, Jones countered.

“(The Million Jobs Plan) will bring opportunity to the many young people in the community who are struggling to find a job,” the incumbent said.

Jones pledged the her party will eliminate subsidies paid for wind and solar, as well as the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to give people some hydro bill relief.

“If you’re a homeowner, a business owner, you’re being hit,” she said. “We’re subsidizing wind and solar projects at 50 cents, and reselling hydro at five to 10 cents.”

Yazbek said the NDP plans to get hydro bills under control by merging agencies, capping CEO salaries and getting a better price for electricity exports through direct trading. Her party also plans to slash the HST off hydro bills.

“Over a decade of mismanagement has made energy costs spiral out of control,” Yazbek said, claiming Hudak’s plan to privatize public hydro assets “will only make the problem worse.”

No party can pledge to decrease hydro rates, according to Wallace. Removing subsidies “is just a shell game,” she argued.

“It is an election promise that can’t be kept,” Wallace said, pointing to expensive nuclear power plant refurbishments and a failure to capitalize on hydroelectric power as hurdles. “Remove the subsidies or remove them all, but somewhere it has got to be made up.”

The next provincial election debate hosted by the GDACC *will be held at Grace Tipling Hall in Shelburne on Thursday (May 29), beginning at 7 p.m.

 *Please not correction of May 29 venue

The venue is Glenbrook Elementary School, 300 Fiddle Park Lane, Shelburne

Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM

By Chris Halliday
Published in the Caledon Enterprise, May 29, 2014

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