Ontario Hansard - 05-October2009

Mr. Peter Tabuns: My question is to the Minister of the Environment. Last month, Simcoe county cancelled its plans to build a dump at site 41 in the face of widespread community opposition and growing evidence of damage to the water table, but the provincial government certificate of approval for the site has not been withdrawn. Residents are concerned that the council may in fact sell that site to a private dump operator. Will the minister put an end to the dump at site 41 once and for all by revoking the certificate of approval?

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Supplementary?

Mr. Peter Tabuns: Yes, obviously a supplementary.

Come on. I mean, have you been reading what's out there in the public domain about that site? I was there with you in front of the Ministry of the Environment building when the citizens brought in those bottles of contaminated water. Have you sent people out to check what happened after the excavation started? We've got a problem here. We've got a county that spent millions of dollars on this dump. There are substantial questions about the threat to an aquifer in this province. You are just sitting there not taking the action that has to be taken. You should be committing money to that county so it can reduce waste, so it does not have to have this landfill. You need to revoke this certificate of approval. Are you going to do that?