Seaway News
The Editor:
Imagine this: a company proposes a new landfill just outside Cornwall – near homes, schools, farmland, and waterways. This facility is set to operate around the clock, drawing up to 700 truckloads of waste a day. The community is outraged. City council unanimously opposes the project. Local residents pack meetings, write letters, and take to the street. Leadership from Akwesasne raises serious concerns about threats to land and water. Everyone is calling for a full environmental assessment. The government initially promises one.
Now imagine the government backtracks on that commitment.
No environmental assessment. No public hearing. No municipal control. The project goes ahead anyway.
That’s exactly what’s happening right now in Dresden, Ontario, a town of 3,000 people located on the Sydenham River. Despite strong and ongoing opposition from residents, local officials, and nearby Indigenous Nations, a landfill project is moving forward – because Ontario passed Bill 5. This law strips away environmental safeguards and gives the provincial government sweeping powers to approve developments, even over the strong and repeated objections of communities.
If Cornwall were in Dresden’s shoes, we’d be just as powerless.
Bill 5 means the province could approve a landfill or industrial site just outside our city – even if it threatened our air quality, our land, or the St. Lawrence River, where we draw our drinking water. City council couldn’t stop it. Local residents would have no say. Indigenous rights could be ignored. The requirement for a full environmental assessment? Gone.
These projects don’t just change the landscape – they risk polluting the environment for generations. And with Bill 5, they can go ahead with minimal oversight or public consultation.
This isn’t some far-off scenario. It’s a warning.
Bill 5 removes safeguards that protect people and the planet, all in the name of “cutting red tape.” But that red tape is what ensures we have clean water to drink, safe air to breathe, and a voice in decisions that affect our communities for generations.
Cornwall isn’t facing a new landfill today – but Dresden is. And thanks to Bill 5, they can’t stop it. If it happened here, neither could we.
We need to pay attention. We need to speak up. Contact your local MPP Nolan Quinn and ask him what he would do to defend our community from this kind of irreparable harm. Because if we wait until the bulldozers show up on our doorstep, it will already be too late.
Mélanie Ayotte
Cornwall, ON
L’article What if Cornwall Were Dresden? est apparu en premier sur Cornwall Seaway News.
