TORONTO — Local residents and a First Nation brought their fight against a large landfill to Queen's Park, where they accused the premier of trampling over the community's concerns to fast-track a project backed by his donors.
The chair of a local advocacy group says the community feels betrayed by the decision to cancel an environmental assessment for the landfill just north of Dresden, a small rural farming community in southwestern Ontario.
Stefan Premdas, the head of the group, questioned how the project got singled out in a controversial omnibus bill introduced by Premier Doug Ford's government.
The Liberals have asked the integrity commissioner to look into whether the government gave the project preferential treatment because it's backed by lucrative Progressive Conservative donors.
Ford says he doesn't know the developer and didn't look at who owned the project.
He says Ontario sends about 40 per cent of its waste to the United States and President Donald Trump could turn it away if trade disputes were to escalate.
"It takes one phone call from President Trump to say cut us off, and then what do we do? We have to be prepared. It's an existing site, we need to expand it," Ford told reporters on Tuesday.
York1, the company behind the project, is seeking to revive a small dormant landfill and expand it to service waste from across the province.
Municipal officials have suggested the company is relying on outdated approvals, granted decades ago, to try to bypass a full environmental assessment of a project that would turn an area less than a kilometre north of Dresden into one of Ontario's busiest waste sites.
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Details of the developers' donations and lobbying efforts were first reported by The Trillium, a Queen's Park-based news outlet, and were cited by the Liberals in their letter to the integrity commissioner.
The Trillium reported that executives at the companies and their family members had donated about $200,000 to the PCs since 2018.
The Canadian Press has corroborated some of those political contributions recorded in a public Elections Ontario database.
Under the developer's proposal, a small landfill dating back to the 1960s that holds 40,000 cubic metres could expand to a total of 1.6 million cubic metres, enough to fill almost 650 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Officials have said the company also wants to establish waste processing stations to receive up to 6,000 tonnes of waste per day, even though existing permits for the property dating back to 1998 only allow for a tiny fraction of that amount.
Locals fear any leaching from the landfill could be disastrous for the area waterways and endangered species, and balk at the site's proximity to homes and schools.
The property is also surrounded by prime agricultural land and the water around the site streams into the Sydenham River, home to some endangered species, including the spiny softshell turtle.
An environmental assessment would have had to consider alternative designs or locations for the project.
Chief Leela Thomas of Walpole Island First Nation, whose reserve is just downstream of the project, says the government's backtracking not only threatens local biodiversity, but violates "the spirit and intent" of Ontario's commitment to environmental protections.
"What message is the government sending when it is willing to trade away clean water, community safety, and climate resilience for the convenience of avoiding proper review and consent?" she said.
The province initially announced in March 2024 it would pursue an environmental assessment for the project, citing community concerns. Shortly after that, the premier called a byelection in the local riding of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, where the successful PC candidate Steve Pinsonneault campaigned against the expansion.
Then, in a surprise move, the government proposed to cancel that assessment as part of the omnibus Bill 5 introduced last month.
Pinsonneault's office has not responded to a request for comment.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles claimed the government never intended to keep its promise to Dresden residents.
"This government will always promise anything and everything during an election, and then they turn around and break their promise," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2025.
Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press
