‘Listen to the People, now!’: 905 leaders & residents tired of Doug Ford’s blind support of destructive quarries

The sight of mountain-shaped piles of aggregate that have left parts of Milton pocked with gaping holes where earth was extracted, casts a shadow over the community’s future.

During the 2024 Milton by-election, Premier Doug Ford made a clear promise: “I know the mayor doesn’t want it (Campbellville quarry), no one wants it, I don’t want it—we’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen, one way or another.”

With development pressures mounting, and Ford determined to get the 413 Highway built, residents fear his promise was nothing more than a campaign play to sway a big bloc of voters who do not want greenspaces torn up for building materials.  

“People’s voices matter, and we should not be doing any more new quarries or quarry expansions until we actually have an honest, transparent study around how much aggregate we actually need, and how much aggregate has been licensed…also only mine what we actually need,” Ontario Green party leader Mike Schreiner said in a video message during a well attended rally in Milton on January 25, organized to send Ford a message about his failure to control Ontario’s powerful aggregate industry.

A Milton rally on January 25 brought attention to Doug Ford’s failure to keep Ontario’s powerful aggregate industry in check.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

Determined to hold the Premier to his word, residents from Milton, Burlington, Caledon and surrounding communities were joined by local mayors for the indoor rally, organized by Reford Gravel Mining Coalition, to talk about their struggles with the aggregate industry. They demanded Ford, “Listen to the people, now!”

Mike Balkwill, a community activist and the event host, highlighted the long-standing issues in communities. In Burlington, residents have opposed Nelson Aggregates' planned expansion of the Mount Nemo quarry for more than a decade; Milton has been resisting the Reid Road Reservoir Quarry proposal for seven years and Caledon residents have been opposing the planned CBM mega blasting quarry in Cataract for over four years.

“That’s a long, long time,” Balkwill said.

Milton Mayor Gord Krantz speaking at the rally on January 25.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

Caledon is home to more than 20 licensed pits serving the aggregate industry, which have caused significant harm, tearing up more than 4,000 acres of land—an area nearly five times the size of New York City’s Central Park.

Caledon Mayor Annette Groves made remarks in support of the activists during the rally. But her lack of action since stepping into the role just over two years ago has drawn widespread criticism from residents, especially after she vowed during the 2022 election campaign to fight for greenspaces and push back against sprawl development. She has done the opposite since, aggressively using her strong mayor powers to push a dozen zoning changes that clear the way for sprawling subdivision developments. 

She has also failed to take action to oppose construction of the 413 Highway, contradicting promises she made and positions she took before becoming mayor. 

At the rally she focussed on getting money from aggregate producers in return for the stress they put on municipal infrastructure.

“They beat up our roads, they drive all over, they create dust, they create traffic gridlock, we have to fix those roads,” Groves said. “It’s your tax dollars, and this is also something we’re asking the province, to make it more equitable, to make it fair for municipalities, if they want to locate here and they are here, they need to pay their fair share, and they have not been paid their fair share, and we know how powerful they are and how strong they are, and they have a bottomless pit of money.”

Caledon is facing an application for an 800-acre, below-water-table blasting quarry by Canada Building Materials (CBM), to operate in the hamlet of Cataract, cutting through 1,000 acres of green space perilously close to rural homes and critical water sources.
 

A letter written by a Peel resident to the Ontario government in 2019 which has been up on the official provincial website asking Premier Doug Ford to “Please, leave the Greenbelt as it was meant to be”.

(Government of Ontario)

“Caledon already has what I would say is more than its share of aggregate mining…we have never been faced with anything like any blasting mega quarry. It is a very daunting issue,” David Sylvester, Chair of the Forks of the Credit Preservation Group (FCPG) said during his address at the rally.

The CBM proposal was stalled since the Town implemented an interim control bylaw (ICBL), halting new aggregate operations in Caledon for one year in October 2022. The ICBL was extended in September 2023—which was appealed by CBM.

The two-year period provided the town with "some breathing room" to protect the community's wellbeing. In October 2024, Caledon, in partnership with the Forks of the Credit Preservation Group, updated its Official Plan, introducing new policies that prevent mineral aggregate operations in evaluated non-provincially significant wetlands, unevaluated wetlands and their associated features.

“You would think that two years would be more than enough time to rewrite a set of aggregate policies and adopt a new official plan amendment but it was not, it’s an enormous undertaking. But I’m happy to report at the end of the two-year time limit, we got the job done,” Sylvester remarked.

Despite the updated plan and the expiration of the ICBL on October 18, 2024, the threat of the blasting quarry persists, with approval potentially allowing it to operate for “over 50 years.”

This is in addition to the environmental and community toll caused by the PC government's relentless push to build Highway 413 at any cost through Bill 212—expropriating land and homes that have been in families for generations, all while cutting through the Greenbelt.

A town of around 80,000 residents, once celebrated as the greenest in Ontario, Caledon is projected to grow to 300,000 by 2040, and the Ford government’s solution to match that growth is to prioritize aggregate expansion and housing developments, dismissing both expert advice and local calls for alternative approaches.

Sylvester warns, “Caledon’s roads are already over capacity, with hundreds of gravel trucks from existing mines,” and the ‘traffic chaos’ will only escalate as the population grows.

Trucks hauling aggregate are a common sight on Caledon’s roads, often kicking up dust and increasing air pollution.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

“The prospect of an additional 800 gravel trucks a day on our roads with this aggregate application is beyond the pale,” he said while warning that 600 acres of prime agricultural land will be impacted along with degrading water and air quality if this quarry is approved.

Forks of the Credit Preservation Group chair David Sylvester (left), Caledon ward 3 Councillor Doug Maskell and mayor Annette Groves.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer) 

“Anytime you have a below-water table quarry, there’s necessity to pump vast quantities of water. In this case, it would be several million litres per week of excess water discharged into the Credit River, which happens to be right next door to the site…you can only imagine the impacts of that on the ecosystem—the air we breathe…for miles around this blasting quarry, the air’s going to be clouded with particulate matter especially PM 2.5,” he said.

Caledon’s updated official plan aligns with the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) standards for PM2.5 and PM10, two types of harmful particulate matter. Quarries are known to generate high concentrations of both PM10 (particles with a diameter of 10 microns) and PM2.5 (particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns). 

Unfortunately, under Premier Ford’s leadership, much of the province follows the outdated 2005 WHO standard.

Along with the threat of air pollution, the dangers posed by vibrations and flyrock from blasting operations are a major concern.

Caledon resident Tony Sevelka, who lives steps away from the proposed quarry, has dedicated much of his time to studying these risks, particularly the dangers of flyrock.

“There is no standardized definition of flyrock, which complicates understanding the potential adverse effects associated with blasting rock,” Sevelka said in a study published in December 2022. He has also proposed updates to safety measures, which The Pointer will report on soon.

Experts opposing the Campbellville quarry in Milton are concerned about the risk of flyrock travelling up to 1,700 metres, potentially endangering cars on Highway 401, just 500 metres away. 

The Reid Road Reservoir Quarry site is expected to extract sand and gravel for 20 years from over 83 hectares.

(Environmental Defence)

Milton Mayor Gord Krantz, who was standing beside Ford when he promised to close the Milton quarry, said he’s aware of the impacts and has been a steadfast opponent from the very start. “I’ve opposed this right from day one,” he told residents.

Disappointment with the PC government has sparked local governments to push back and take the lead in advocating for change.

In May 2024, Burlington officials, led by Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, unanimously passed a motion urging the province to reject Nelson Aggregates' proposal to expand its Mount Nemo quarry by nearly 80 hectares. 

Mayor of Burlington Marianne Meed Ward addressing residents at the rally.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

The new motion emphasized the area's ecological importance, including its status as part of the protected Greenbelt, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and proximity to the Mount Nemo Conservation Area along with concerns, raised by local environmental groups, about the expansion’s potential impact on water resources, wildlife habitats, air quality, noise, and the risk of flyrock from blasting. 

Quarry expansions have been halted, in the past, due to efforts by Burlington residents and environmental groups to protect endangered Jefferson salamanders.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

Similarly, efforts by local groups along with residents like Sevelka, the Town of Caledon is taking a proactive approach as it also implemented new requirements for blast impact assessments, flyrock management plans, and vibration management plans, all of which are directly related to the CBM proposal.

Groves claimed to be on the side of concerned residents and blamed Ford’s PC government for inaction. She was heavily criticized by many of the same locals after she first vowed to stop the CBM quarry in Cataract but then later dragged her heels when work was supposed to be done to make Caledon’s aggregate policies much more strict. 

“It is our home, it is our town…we have got 22 pits and quarries, 18 pits, 4 quarries - that is a lot of pits and quarries for one municipality. I know we're a very large municipality, we’re almost 700 square kilometres but we are concerned about rehabilitation,” she said.

“We’ve been several times to the province to Minister Smith to speak about rehabilitation, I don’t have an answer yet.”

“We are concerned about minimum distance separation with fly rock, I don’t have an answer yet.”

“We are concerned about groundwater…we are waiting for Minister Calandra to approve our official plan, it is currently under review, and we are waiting and we are knocking, and we are asking, and we have not heard anything, it’s been crickets.”

Quarries across Caledon look like cratered moonscapes in the middle of bulldozed greenspaces. 

(James Dick Construction)

Sylvester said, “a quarry like this simply can never be rehabilitated. We’ll be left with a vast scar on the surface of the earth until the next ice age.”

Toward the end of the rally, Balkwill called Ford’s official helpline, and chanted with everyone at the rally:

“Premier Doug Ford

Listen to the People, Now

Stop the Campbellville Quarry

Stop the Mt. Nemo Quarry

Stop the Caledon Mega Quarry

Listen to the People, Now!

Listen to the People, Now!

Listen to the People, Now!”

Residents are ready to make their voices heard as they head to the polls on February 27.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

Ontario Liberal representative Galen Naidoo Harris, who was the Party’s  Milton by-election candidate last year, told residents they have the power to defeat Ford.

“If he’s not going to stand up, and take action and cancel this proposed quarry once and for all, I think it’s time to send a message.” 

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