Tiny Township council is hoping to brook no resistance if changes to aggregate regulations in Ontario affect the township.
At the recent committee of the whole meeting, members of Tiny council took a look at correspondence from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), which informed municipalities across the province an expanded list of changes would be coming to aggregate site plans in Ontario.
“We did receive a notice from the MNRF with regards to changing of approvals under the Aggregate Resources Act and supporting policy,” said Mayor Dave Evans. “The letter itself is fairly high level and does not pertain to the Township of Tiny, per se, but rather Ontario.”
A 2022 report stated the township had nine properties classified and assessed as gravel pit/quarry/sand pits by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. They include two aggregate wash-water facilities: Teedon Pit owned by Dufferin Aggregates at 40 Darby Rd. and Waverley Pit No. 2 owned by Sarjeant Company Ltd. at 1379 Baseline Rd. S.
Evans added: “Past councils and staff have done an awful lot of work to get to where we are in terms of making sure that — and I won’t say which specific pits — we’re on top of activities and the impact that it has on our water … and our environment.
“And I’d hate to see those special dispensations that were so hard-fought just get washed away, pardon the pun, in this change that the MNRF is putting forward.”
He suggested staff look into returning with a study that further looked into the effects the MNRF changes could have on past decisions regarding aggregate operations across Tiny.
Coun. Dave Brunelle chimed in, sharing he had been working with an aggregate company over the past several years, and his understanding was the changes were to minor site plan amendments such as shifting locations of small equipment on a property — actions that didn’t require the full MNRF approval process to accomplish.
“But I’d be in favour of staff to study what those expanded list of changes (would be),” he said. “In my opinion, I believe they will be just some minor changes. If there’s going to be some major changes to this site plan ... you still need to get a major site plan amendment.”
Deputy Mayor Sean Miskimins spoke on the other side of the topic.
“While I appreciate Coun. Brunelle’s input on his own experience at one particular site, I fully concur with Mayor Evans — I would ask staff that they do this. They need to look at it from a macro perspective. We’ve got many different aggregate operations on very different and unique locations,” said Miskimins.
“And although it may not have any implications for any specific site, I think once we get into the macro and start looking into other sites that might be on top of different things, it could have significant, pardon the pun, downstream effects.”
Through a unanimous vote, staff was directed to prepare a report for a future committee of the whole meeting that explores the implications of the legislative changes regarding changing of approvals under the Aggregate Resources Act and supporting policy.
The MNRF letter regarding streamlining of approvals can be viewed within the agenda page located on the Tiny Township website.
A history of gravel pit operations in the French’s Hill area is available on the township’s website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on Tiny Township’s YouTube channel.
