- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- York—Simcoe
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 69%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $119,263.34
- Government Page
- Mar/21/23 1:04:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition signed by thousands of Canadians, including the residents of the Town of Georgina and the small but mighty community of Pefferlaw.
The petition calls on the government to prohibit the development of the so-called Baldwin east aerodrome. To date, the Liberals have done nothing to prevent the planned dumping of more than 1.2 million cubic metres of potentially contaminated soil on the environmentally sensitive area within the Lake Simcoe watershed and have ignored the previous involvement of the aerodrome proponents in waste management and illegal fill dumping.
The petitioners call on the Minister of Transport to prohibit the construction of the Baldwin east aerodrome and amend related Transport Canada regulations to ensure that the false pretense of building an aerodrome could not be used to illegally dump fill. We need action.
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- Feb/3/22 6:56:10 p.m.
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At a special meeting of the Georgina town council to discuss this proposal, the proponent reluctantly admitted its plan was to dump more than one million cubic metres of fill on the property. That is more than 100 trucks a day. This is unacceptable. The proponent misrepresented the extent of its consultation with officials, the public and the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, and were combative and aggressive when local officials asked reasonable questions about the proposal.
There are other issues as well. The proposed aerodrome would be built on an ecologically sensitive area within the Lake Simcoe watershed. The site is protected wetland and is adjacent to active farmland and waterways that feed directly into Lake Simcoe. Also, the need and purpose of the aerodrome have not been made clear. There are numerous local and regional aerodromes in the area, and the planned length and direction of the runways will be unsuitable for most types of aircraft. This significantly limits its economic viability.
Unfortunately, Transport Canada does not account for these factors when deciding to approve or reject an aerodrome proposal. This means that even if all evidence points toward this being an illegal for-profit dumping operation, the current regulations state that these considerations only factor into the minister's decisions as they relate to aviation. Even though regulations provide for municipalities to enforce their own soil laws, the aerodrome proponents simply need to argue that fill is being dumped at these locations for aviation purposes under federal jurisdiction to avoid further scrutiny.
Is the Minister of Transport aware of these loopholes, and what are the government's plans to address this?
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- Feb/3/22 6:56:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the parliamentary secretary's response and the minister's willingness to engage me and my office on this very important issue for my constituents in York—Simcoe.
I am not against building airports or aerodromes, and I am a private pilot myself, but it is clear that this process needs to be looked at. Dumping fill now is a lucrative business, and certain individuals have identified the Canadian aviation regulations as a great way to do it with no scrutiny at all. This jeopardizes the future, the actual future of aviation in this great country; it threatens the environment and it gives Canadians the impression that collaborative federalism just does not work for them.
This is not a partisan issue. I am here tonight advocating on behalf of my constituents for an acknowledgement and a response from the Minister of Transport that something needs to be done on this issue.
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- Feb/3/22 6:51:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in December I raised my question in the House of Commons about a proposed aerodrome in Georgina, in my riding of York—Simcoe. In other communities there have been high-profile incidents where corporations use the false pretense of building or expanding an aerodrome or an airport to cash crop dirt. Because aerodromes fall exclusively under the federal jurisdiction through the Canadian aviation regulations, these corporations are able to dump tonnes of contaminated fill with no regard for municipal or provincial soil laws.
Nearby, at Greenbank Airport in Port Perry, operators illegally dumped more than 2.5 million cubic metres of contaminated soil. They did this after they initially received permission to supposedly expand their facilities to runways. With the airport all but abandoned, there are now extensive and expensive costs required to clean up and restore the site. This practice has dire consequences for the environment and leads to significant financial hardship for municipalities and taxpayers.
This has happened in other places too, such as Tottenham and Burlington. Now Georgina residents are faced with a similar situation. The sole director of the companies that own the proposed site is the president of a Toronto-based waste disposal company. The spokesman and contact for the aerodrome's proponent, Mauro Marchioni, is a lawyer who has previously represented companies in the waste management industry. These companies have been fined by the Government of Ontario for illegally dumping contaminated fill.
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- Dec/7/21 3:10:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, residents of York—Simcoe have many concerns about a proposed aerodrome in the town of Georgina. In Greenbank, Burlington, Tottenham and elsewhere, corporations have used a loophole in the federal aerodrome regulations to exploit municipal soil laws. They use the pretense of building or expanding an aerodrome to dump tonnes of contaminated fill at significant cost to the environment and to local taxpayers.
What has the Liberal government done to close the loophole, and can the Minister of Transport guarantee this will not happen again in Pefferlaw or anywhere else?
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