A member of Windsor city council says he has “a deep level of concern” over the Ontario government’s plan to burn more garbage for energy and build more landfills.
On Tuesday, the government tabled an omnibus bill, Building Ontario Faster Act, that seeks to speed up the permitting and approval regime across all ministries, including for new landfill sites or incinerators.
Environment Minister Todd McCarthy said Wednesday they want to have proponents come forward if they have proposals for either a landfill or an energy-from-waste site and municipalities that would be willing, able, and supportive of being a host community.
He said communities can say no to a landfill or garbage incinerator, but he also left the door open to imposing landfills on communities if none volunteer to be hosts.
Details in the bill that still has to pass show the province will repeal a section of the Environmental Assessment Act that requires municipal support for landfill sites.
The Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority landfill at 7700 County Rd. 18 in Essex is due to reach capacity in 2040.
Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie, who’s served on both the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) board of directors, says in our region, we’ve been able to manage our solid waste, including the landfill, in a very responsible way.
“To have the province now start suggesting some pretty wild solutions and forcing municipalities to accept garbage from other communities without having any opportunity to discuss the impact of that decision is a very aggressive step to take an early point in where this discussion needs to go. So, I’m very, very concerned,” he says.
McKenzie says this is concerning because siting a landfill in any community is one of the most challenging conversations you could have under any circumstances.
“These are challenging conversations that need time. The community has to be fully involved, so for the minister, despite what’s happening in the United States, to be taking these aggressive steps,” he says.
McKenzie says these are wild conversations to be having, and it almost seems like they’re just throwing this out there.
“Incineration of waste, not even organic material. There are massive environmental impacts locally. We saw back in the 1990s we had problems with acid rain because of an incinerator in Detroit that was eventually shut down,” he says.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week that lifted some tariffs on Canadian goods but added a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian trash, with the measures set to go into force in a few days.
McCarthy said that decision could mean Ontario’s landfills will be full within five years if the tariff stays, but he did not say how many landfills or incinerators the province needs.
A 2024 report from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said Canada shipped more than three million tonnes of garbage to the state in 2024.
With files from The Canadian Press