County Council Approves Waste Management Policy Amendments

Wednesday, 8 June 2016 14:38

Oxford County is hoping to send a message, that this is not the place to host a new landfill.

Oxford County Council has approved the proposed amendments to their Waste Management and related policies.

The OPAL Alliance, Oxford Environmental Action Committee and Transition to Less Waste team all did deputations to show their support for the changes. President of the OEAC Suzanne Crelline tells Heart FM gives us more of an argument at a Provincial hearing to prevent the County from hosting a landfill.

"We've got more of a leg to stand on where we can say, we're being sustainable here, we're being an example for the rest of the Province on how to move towards Zero Waste, we're supporting the Province's Waste Free Ontario Act and their goals to move the Province towards Zero Waste and so we don't believe that it would be prudent to have the government to make a decision to have trash imported to Oxford County through a proposal such as Walkers."

Council voted to accept the changes which will incorporate relevant principles of sustainability as contained in the Future Oxford community Sustainability Plan. It will also reflect the policies and principles of the 2014 Provincial Policy Statement.

The groups hope the policy amendments will make it more difficult for proposals like the one from Walker Environmental to build a landfill near Ingersoll. Ultimately though the County still could be over ruled by the Province. Crelline does say that she feels the County is doing all they can to block the proposed landfill from Walker Environmental Group.

"I think that as we have gone along in this process which started in 2012, we have had the County on board with us from Day 1 and a lot of what the community groups have done, has been sharing all of the research that we have been gathering over the past 4 years and providing that to the County and to the municipalities and the citizens so that they understand the risks of this type of proposal and also the tools at our disposal to try and combat proposals like this."