Green Party: McGuinty more interested in making headlines than looking after communities

Green Party: McGuinty more interested in making headlines than looking after communities

Orangeville, Ontario – Green Party Leader, Mike Schreiner (Simcoe-Grey) and Deputy Leader, Rob Strang (Dufferin-Caledon) say the Liberals cannot be trusted to protect farmland and clean water in Ontario. Strong local opposition has led to backtracking by the Liberals, but their ambiguous statement this week won’t fix the problem.

“We have to question why the McGuinty Liberals didn’t act on changing the Aggregate Resources Act before now. This has been our policy for some time,” said Schreiner. “The community deserves more than ambiguous statements. The issue has not changed. No new revelations have come out. The only thing that has changed for the Liberals on this issue is proximity to election day.”

The residents of Melancthon, where the quarry threatens farmland and the water system, have organized a strong opposition to this development since 2009. They travelled to Queen’s Park earlier this year for a rally to express their opposition to this project.

“This announcement is an admission that the Liberal’s have not been doing their job over the last eight years during their majority governments,” said Strang. “Clearly, we cannot trust a party who sat on their hands while they had the power to stop projects like this. A government committed to protecting farmland and water would have changed the Aggregate Resources Act when they introduced the growth plans, prior to this quarry application.”

The Green Party of Ontario has long promoted a plan to protect farmland, support Ontario farmers and promote clean water.

“It shouldn’t take an election to make the Liberals see that this development and the flawed legislation that allowed it needs to change,” concluded Schreiner. “Only the Green Party has consistently opposed this mega-quarry, and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure it does not go ahead. We need Green MPPs at Queen’s Park to fight this quarry after the election.”

The Green Party is committed to:

Revising the Aggregate Resources Act to create incentives for more efficient use of aggregates, aggregate recycling and stronger site rehabilitation efforts.
Requiring a full Environmental Assessment for aggregate applications that meet the Ministry of Natural Resource’s definition of a mega quarry (currently 150,000,000 tonnes)
Revising Ontario’s growth plans to support more balanced population and job growth around the province and eliminate the population quotas that impose unsustainable and unaffordable growth on some municipalities.
Changing the Ontario Policy Statement to protect Class 1, 2, 3 and 4 farmland.
Preservation and protection of our farmland, water resources and natural heritage needs to be a high priority in Ontario. It’s time to put our water supply, our farmland and our communities first.

For more information on the Green Party’s plan to build vibrant local economies please visit – www.itstimeforgreen.ca

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Media Contact:

Rebecca Harrison

Director of Communications
Green Party of Ontario
(c) 905-999-5479
(e) rebeccaharrison@gpo.ca