Quarry-created park website misleading Burlington residents, says councillor

As a meeting where residents can weigh in on a rural Burlington quarry expansion approaches, a local councillor says he's received hundreds of emails from residents confused about the proposal — which many believe is for a park, not for a quarry, he says.

Ward 3 Coun. Rory Nisan, whose ward includes the site of the Nelson Aggregate quarry that is looking to expand, says he's received numerous online letters from residents in support of the project over the past year, only to respond and discover they are in support of a park being built on the site, not the quarry expansion currently being proposed. 

"I can count on one hand the number of people who have replied to our reply saying I still support this quarry application," he said. "It's very frustrating as the ward councillor to deal with this misinformation."

Nisan says the confusion stems from parks4burlington.com, a website the company confirmed it created in June 2020, a month after it submitted an application to expand its northern Burlington quarry by 124 acres. 

The website tells visitors: "Halton deserves reasonable growth served by sufficient parkland. A Burlington quarry has offered to donate its land to create a park... but the mayor has rejected the offer outright. The local councillor has said Halton 'doesn't need a big park.' We want Regional council to vote 'yes' to parks." 

Under a button prompting a letter to council to "vote yes to parks," the website says the quarry has promised to donate 1,000 acres to the city "in phases over the next 30 years as [the quarry] expands" but that the mayor and a local councillor think a big park "would be a liability for the city." 

The website points out a comparative deficiency in parkland per capita in Burlington and makes promises for a park, implying the city should take on the project after Nelson Aggregate is done with the land. (It also links to a secondary site, mtnemoquarrypark.com, which offers similar messaging, plus information about the phases of the land transfer process.)

Nisan says he was not aware who was behind the website but that he considers it to be an example of "astroturfing," a term for a movement that appears to be grassroots but is funded by corporate interests.

He says he has received 1,372 "pro-park" — and therefore pro-quarry expansion — emails and 1,739 from those who feel differently, requesting "NO Quarry on Burlington's Escarpment." 

Company says expansion details are clear

When contacted through the website, a person named Kim Smith responded to say Nelson Aggregate set up the site but that Smith had taken over as a site administrator on a volunteer basis. Smith wrote that they would rather not appear on TV or the radio because they had been threatened for running the site but did not elaborate on those threats.

Nelson Aggregate spokesperson Kevin Powers, a principal in public affairs consultancy Campbell Strategies and managing partner of another firm, Project Advocacy, said more than 3,000 people have written to Burlington and regional policymakers in support of the park and quarry expansion. He confirmed that Nelson Aggregate set up the website, and believes the site makes it clear that the quarry expansion is part of the project being proposed. 

He disputes Nisan's claim that those who email councillors in support of the quarry are confused. 

"Only twice have there been follow-up emails [to the website administrator] saying, 'Will you withdraw my support,'" he told CBC Hamilton.

One of Powers' businesses, Project Advocacy, says it "specializes in supporting project developers facing community opposition and government challenges." The company promises to use "citizen advocacy...to earn and maintain the social licence required for a project's success. 

"We help developers find, organize and give voice to otherwise silent supporters of your project in host communities... and help organize them into an effective political force. They sign petitions. They show up at public hearings, and they act as local advocates for your project."

Second attempt to expand quarry

Nelson Aggregate's proposal is the company's second attempt in the last 20 years to expand its footprint. It applied for an expansion in 2004 and was eventually denied by Ontario's Consolidated Hearings Board (Joint Board) in 2012 on the basis that "Nelson had not made sufficient provision for the protection of these unique ecologic and environmentally sensitive areas" and would encroach on habitat for the Jefferson salamander, an endangered species that resides in the area. 

The Quarry is located in rural north Burlington, on 2 Sideroad between Cedar Springs Road and Guelph Line. It is on the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, near Mount Nemo Conservation Area. The quarry technically has a number of companies involved — Nelson Aggregates is partially owned by Lafarge Canada, which is owned by multinational construction materials company Holcim Group (previously known as LafargeHolcim). Its other part is owned by Steed and Evans Holdings Inc. 

The new proposal would expand the quarry into a field south of the existing site and into the Burlington Springs Golf and Country Club to the west. In addition to the salamander habitat, local residents have concerns about rock blasting occurring closer to their homes and closer to two nearby pipelines, as well as the environmental impact of extra truck traffic and the potential for the operation to affect the quantity and quality of the groundwater that feeds their wells. 

The City of Burlington expressed similar concerns in a letter to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in December.

Nelson Aggregate's spokesperson Powers says the quarry owner has already proved through its application that the environmental concerns are unfounded. He says there has never been a formal complaint about blasting in 70 years of the quarry's operation, and that "any well complaint received by Nelson in over 70 years has been proven to be unrelated to quarry operation." 

Powers says the company's new application takes into account the salamanders' habitat and proposes significantly less extraction than before in the proposed southern expansion area. 

"What we are proposing is 60 per cent smaller than the footprint of the previous application. What we are proposing is to maintain the natural catchment areas or surface-driven wetlands… We're also including 189 acres of ecological enhancements to improve habitat."

Public meeting set 

Powers says the material to be extracted from the quarry, known as dolostone, is in short supply and is needed to build roads and bridges. "It is the highest-strength limestone you can get in Ontario… Where we would like to dig is one of the few areas in Ontario that is licensed and set aside for the extraction of this resource."

He also makes a case for extracting aggregate close to where it is used, to save emissions caused by transportation. Opponents say the total environmental impact of the project needs to be considered, such as the air and habitat impacts of deforestation, and the emissions from trucks used to bring fill into the facility.

The proposal is currently before the Joint Agency Review Team (JART), a group of planners and support staff from Halton Region, the City of Burlington, the Niagara Escarpment Commission and Conservation Halton. That group's assessment will be used to help its member bodies make their decisions on whether to approve the application. 

Gord Pinard, the president of Conserving our Rural Ecosystems, a group fighting the expansion, says the JART review team has identified more than 900 items of deficiency or question in Nelson's application that need to be addressed before it can make its final assessment. He says the target for a response is typically two years, but it depends on how quickly the proponent fulfills the panel's requests. 

Nisan, the local councillor, says he expects the JART report within "months," as opposed to years. He encourages citizens who would like to weigh in on the quarry expansion to participate in a Halton Regional Council public meeting on the subject being held online on Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 11:30 a.m. 

Residents who'd like to make written submissions or presentations can email the regional clerk and senior planner Janice Hogg by noon on Sept. 14.

Worries about another costly fight ahead

Pinard says local residents feel like they just finished the last fight against a quarry expansion and are exhausted to have to start all over again. He says the last fight cost between $500,000 to $800,000 — all money donated by residents to pay lawyers' fees, consultants and for communication materials such as signs and a website.

"There's that disappointment that you have to go through this whole process again, when we thought it was closed, but more important is the fear about the impacts that are expected," he said.

"There's several hundred people who have wells and are concerned there will not be adequate water in the wells to meet our needs, and the quality of water will be safe to drink. Nelson imports a substantial amount of surplus waste construction fill… We're worried that potential contaminants coming in will ultimately leach into the groundwater."

Musician Sarah Harmer, who grew up near the quarry and was active in the last expansion battle, says that nothing has changed since the project was declined last time — other than the worsening condition of the climate and environment.

"I think the process is quite unfair, that citizens and governments have to fight this again just because a transnational company wants to take another crack at it."