There was only one item on the City’s Community Planning committee agenda Monday night – the Burlington Nelson Quarry Official Plan Amendment.
Normally a simple "Receive and File" motion to accept a staff report, it took all night for council to hear all 21 delegations from the public after a brief staff presentation.
The City Clerk’s office was kept busy sorting through 2,340 written comments from the public that needed to be packaged and entered into record as part of the presentation.
Based on unscientific analysis of the first 300 submissions, it appears that the vast majority were opposed to the expansion of the Nelson Quarry on No. 2 Side Road. Just one person in that sample was in favour of the quarry expansion.
Council chambers was so full of residents during the session, that an overflow room had to be opened to accommodate others who turned up in person. The committee session even brought out former Ward 3 councillor John Taylor and singer/songwriter Sarah Harmer, who was instrumental in the fight against an
earlier expansion proposal some 15 years ago.
“This is one of the two big issues that are near and dear to my heart," said Taylor, noting the other issue is the much-discussed mid-peninsula (highway) corridor. "We can’t let this happen.”
Harmer, who joined via Zoom, told the story of her family’s farm that abuts the proposed expansion that experienced a crew from Imperial Oil channelling a tunnel under a nearby wetlands to install a pipeline.
“The digging hit a fissure in the rock and they had to stop because they didn’t understand the karst geological structure that’s underneath the area.” said Harmer. “If Imperial Oil’s experts failed to plan for that, what makes us believe that Nelson’s experts are any better?”
Emotions were high at the public meeting as delegate after delegate explained their concerns, fears, frustration and personal stories of disappointment that yet another expansion plan was set before them.
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman chaired the committee meeting and had to advise the group that clapping after a delegation’s comments would not be tolerated. Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns mused aloud that it might be okay to wave hands, as in American Sign Language, to show approval – and the crowd did, often.
All councillors who attended the public meeting thanked the participants for their comments and personal presence to ask council to formally oppose the amendment to by-laws at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) hearings set for October. Several entities such as the Niagara Escarpment Commission, the Region
of Halton, have already submitted their opposition to the expansion plans.
Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna said, “I’m very pleased to see this amount of engagement. We haven’t seen this amount of public input since before COVID.”
Ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte, when asked if she’d like to see more of this kind of public activity, said, “I’d love it.”
Councillor Rory Nisan, whose Ward 3 encompasses the quarry, asked several questions of delegates and offered a succinct re-cap of what each delegate brought to the table. After the meeting, Nisan shared some thoughts.
“Council is elected every four years to provide leadership,” he said. “We are expected to look deeply into these matters and to have a public voice, but
also to weigh all the factors to make the right call for the community. If we oppose it (the expansion), then we’ll be alongside Halton Region (all seven Burlington reps sit on Halton council) at the OLT forum.”
Nisan added, “It’s been about a year since I’ve received an email in support (of the expansion). I believe a lot of the initial support was around the building of the park.”
The committee moved to accept the staff report and public feedback but held back on making a decision on whether to officially oppose the expansion to the OLT, on the advice of staff who suggested it would be best to wait until council hears from the City’s legal department on ramifications of that decision, sometime in
early October.
Council will then hold an in camera meeting and vote on the matter.
The OLT’s first case management conference (CMC) will be Oct. 11. It ill be open for public viewing, but only those who apply in advance for participant status will be allowed to make a presentation.
