Losing track of landfill capacity leaves Ontario in a mess, Barrett backs call for moratorium until dump info is updated

For Immediate Release:
September 23, 2010

Queens Park– The latest revelation from Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner indicates just how much McGuinty has lost control of the waste management file.

“Yesterday, Gord Miller made it clear government doesn’t even know how much landfill capacity is available across the province right now,” stated Barrett. “And yet we continue to see waste management decisions and landfill approvals – I think of Edwards in our backyard – made based on inaccurate or incomplete information.”

The annual report from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario indicates that Landfill Inventory Monitoring Ontario system only contains information about Ontario’s 32 largest landfills out of the 1,157 active landfills the Ministry of the Environment identified. It is further noted that access to this inventory is only open to provincial government employees only.

Former Ontario Environment Minister Carleton-Mississippi Mills MPP Norm Sterling has called for a moratorium on approvals of new landfills and landfill expansions, “until [government] has done a full audit of the existing landfill capacity in the province and made that information public.”

Barrett echoed Sterling’s call for a moratorium noting that with all the problems dogging waste management in Ontario – including the ongoing eco tax fiasco and related waste diversion ineptness – government should ensure it has accurate information for far-reaching landfill decisions impacting the Ontario residents and their environment.

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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at
(519) 428-0446 or (905)-765-8413, 1-800-903-8629