The Ontario government has tabled its response to the review of the Aggregate Resources Act and there is some encouraging news within the document’s pages. Last fall, there was widespread disappointment in the report issued by the Standing Committee on General Government following its 2012 public hearings into the outdated and flawed legislation. Despite the excellent recommendations from a long list of agricultural stakeholders to protect Ontario’s rarest agricultural soils and source water regions from aggregate operations, the Committee ignored those suggestions. Instead it focused on the sketchy scenario of rehabilitating pits and quarries to agriculture after extraction. Once again, it appeared aggregate had trumped agriculture.

The Ontario government has now responded to the Committee’s report and there is a glimmer of hope, a sign that our concerns are being heard. Here is a section of the government’s response referring to agriculture. It raises doubts about whether the all-party Committee went far enough.

You can read the entire report here:

Government Response to Committee ARA Review Report MINISTER SIGNED FINAL…