Dresden community rallies against Bill 5 and proposed landfill site
On Thursday, more than 160 people gathered in Dresden’s Rotary Park to oppose the Ford government’s Bill 5 and a controversial landfill site proposal that the province has reopened the doors to.
The landfill proposal would expand and reopen an inactive landfill site less than a kilometer away from the Dresden town line. The landfill proposed by York1 Environmental Waste Solutions would accept more than 6,000 tonnes of solid non-hazardous construction and demolition waste every day, running around the clock with an estimated 700 trucks travelling to the site each day.
The Dresden community has been actively opposed to the landfill proposal since its introduction in January 2024. The Chatham-Kent municipal council, which oversees the town of Dresden, similarly opposed the proposal, requesting an environmental assessment from the provincial government the following month. This request was heeded, subjecting the project to a full environmental assessment, as promised by the province’s environmental minister.
However, despite the strong community and municipal council opposition to the site, the provincial government seemingly backtracked. The Progressive Conservative government led by premier Doug Ford announced the controversial Bill 5, “the Protect Ontario Unleashing our Economy Act,” which declares the proposed area a “special economic zone” and has waived the requirement for a full environmental assessment. The bill, which passed in May, has been subject to intense scrutiny from environmental experts, Indigenous communities, activists and all three provincial opposition parties.
The local community in Dresden has remained engaged in opposition to Bill 5 and has continued organizing opposition, hoping to get the bill repealed.
The rally, organized by Dresden C.A.R.E.D. (Citizens Against Reckless Environmental Disposal), featured several speakers, including Chief Leela Thomas of Walpole Island First Nation, Ontario New Democratic Party leader Marit Stiles, and the two Chatham-Kent Municipal Councillors for Ward 4, which presides over Dresden and the surrounding region. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) labour union also sent representatives to speak and host a free barbecue for rally attendees.
Bill 5 Impact on Indigenous Rights
According to Chiefs of Ontario, an organization representing the 133 First Nations in the province, Bill 5 limits opportunities for First Nations consultations and consent to development projects. By concentrating the decision-making power in ministers, the bill forgoes Indigenous land stewardship and fails to provide Indigenous communities with free, prior and informed consent, which is a requirement under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“The province of Ontario has failed in this duty,” said Chief Leela Thomas of Walpole Island First Nation, located a 30 minute drive from Dresden, criticizing the province choice to force through Bill 5. “This is colonization dressed in a corporate suit and motivated by greed.”
Chief Thomas echoed concerns of Indigenous peoples across the province regarding the environmental risks Bill 5 poses. The legislation weakens environmental protections and oversight and allows the province to bypass critical processes that safeguard species at risk, cultural heritage, and treaty rights. Chief Thomas asserts that this poses a serious environmental risk to the waters, fish and wildlife that reside on the land. “These harms are not theoretical. They are real and they will last for generations.”
Chief Thomas also noted that the federal government is taking similar steps that ignore and violate the rights of Indigenous Peoples, with the passing Bill C-5 in June, which takes many similar steps on a national level. “The federal government is working hand in hand with provinces [and] violating the rights of First Nations.”
Rick, an Indigenous person from Walpole Island, shared his concerns about the landfill site as a former worker in the demolition waste and transport industry. “We could not sit here today and breathe this beautiful flower-driven air with a landfill up here,” he said. Rick pointed out that the legislation said the site will have secured loads coming inbound, which according to him means that they’re not expected to have thorough safety checks.
Lack of Municipal Collaboration
Chatham-Kent Ward 4 councillors Rhonda Jubenville and Jamie McGrail who preside over the town of Dresden both spoke about the unity of the community and the municipality in the year-and-a-half-long opposition to the landfill proposal. With the province backtracking on the requirement for a full environmental assessment over the site, the municipality’s concerns have been ignored, and they have limited power to intervene.
According to Councillor Jubenville, York1 never reached out to Chatham-Kent municipal council in an official capacity. “Usually, when a big corporation like that comes into a municipality, they come [with] open arms and they want to work with the community. But these people have not done anything like that at all.”
Councillor Jubenville pointed out that the municipality does have limited oversight through municipal bylaws, and they still require zoning applications from York1 in order for the company to move forward with their planned expansion. As such, bylaw officers do have authority until those come in, and the municipality is using them to the fullest extent. “You will see by-law officers going there, and they are going to continue to monitor the site for any by-law or zoning infractions. So we’re on it.”
The municipality also passed a motion on June 9 calling on the province to rescind its decision to allow the landfill expansion, or to require a Terms of Reference at the outset of the project. The Terms of Reference are meant to ensure that the studies that would typically be required by an Environmental Assessment are included in the decision-making, despite the foregoing of this through the bill itself. The province has not yet responded to the municipality’s motion.
“It is times like these [that] unity matters more than ever,” said Councillor McGrail, asserting that the council will continue to advocate and protect the town as best they can. “We must protect our residents — now is the time to stand up for our rights as residents of Ontario.”
Farmland and Environmental Safety
The town of Dresden is surrounded by farmland, and farmers are celebrated across the community. ”We already have enough pressure on our farmland,” said Jim Bracket, a local farmer, pointing out the many risks that the proposed expansion poses to farmers in the area.
He shared concerns highlighting the risk of potential leakage of construction and demolition waste into the soil that farmers depend on for vegetable growth in the area. Farmers are also fearful of the water contamination which would not only threaten the potable water supply of local farms but also drinkable water. Bracket also noted that the landfill could attract pests and cause ecological disturbances.
“Landfills attract rodents, seagulls, and other scavengers, thereby increasing the risk of crop yield,” he added. He also expressed concern about the truck traffic. The York 1 proposal boasts an estimated 700 trucks a day, which would create additional traffic for farmers transporting their goods in the harvest season. Furthermore, farmers are worried that having a large active landfill near farmland may stoke consumer distrust and devalue the produce grown in the area, undermining marketing efforts to buy fresh and local.
Bracket pointed out that Ontario is losing 319 acres of farmland every day, citing the Census of Agriculture from 2022.
“I personally have been in the industry for many years, and you know, I’m not proud of what I’ve had to deliver to these landfills. Matter of fact, I’m very ashamed.” Rick said he had to transport waste to the United States deemed to have such high levels of radiation that it was not allowed in and he was placed on a hazardous waste ferry to return to Canada. “The cargo I had in this garbage trailer was so radiated that it set off all the alarms [on the ferry]. Everybody cleared away from me. They called the Department of Natural Resources, environmental quality. They had every police agency that was available guarding that load until I brought it back to Canada.” However, when he crossed into Canada and went to transport the load to the Ridge Landfill site in Blenheim Ontario, the paperwork for the load was changed and they were assigned as non radioactive, non hazardous, allowing him to bypass the radiation detector at the Ridge. This kind of environmental fraud is rife in Ontario, the province had to introduce regulations to crack down on landfill site owners repeatedly violating environmental laws in 2023.
With various kinds of waste coming into the station, including 500 tonnes of asbestos per day. Rick warned the audience to be wary of the site owners promises to ensure safety. “We can’t expect them to police themselves when they say that they’re going to haul material to the York1 that is strictly construction material. You can’t believe that for one second.”
Bill 5 and Labour Rights
Lyle Gall, a lifelong Dresden resident, Canada Employment and Immigration Union and PSAC member, addressed the labour rights concerns posed by Bill 5. “As workers in Canada and trade unionists, we must stand in opposition to Bill 5. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous leaders — knowing that also our rights as workers are under threat, as is all of our environment. We must ask, ‘unleashing our economy’ for whom?” asked Lyle. “Bill 5 violates existing laws under the guise of protecting Ontario’s economy from the threat of Trump’s tariffs — it is our labor that makes the Ontario economy function, and it is workers’ struggles and strikes that won us the rights and protections we have today.”
Ontario Public Service Employees Union member Candace, who works at St. Clair’s College, added that it is important that workers rights are respected. “We have faculty who are working in wastewater programs, and a lot of our students will go to work in the mechanical plants. Environmental safety, so plays a big part [in their roles].”
Opposition in Provincial Parliament
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles shared her concerns about the people the bill will impact, and pledged to continue the fight to repeal it. As the official opposition party to the governing Progressive Conservatives of Ontario, the NDP has been the focal voice of opposition to Bill 5 in provincial parliament.
“I was there the day that the final vote happened on Bill 5, and I can tell you, Doug Ford did not sit in his seat to vote for Bill 5. He was hiding out somewhere. And also, I will add, this MPP was also not there,” Stiles told the crowd.
The MPP she was referring to was Steve Pinsonneault, Member of Provincial Parliament for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, who was also not present at the rally, though a chair was saved for him on stage. The Progressive Conservative MPP ran his provincial campaign against the landfill expansion and was strongly against it when he was a Chatham-Kent councillor himself. However, since being elected, the community advocates say Pinsonneault has been unresponsive to requests for comments and offered very little in opposition to the Bill and the exemption posed for the site.
“What really gets me about what’s happening to Dresden is that this is a prime example of a government and a premier making another promise and commitment and breaking it.” added the opposition leader.
Stiles encouraged the audience to stay hopeful and promised that change would come. She cited the Greenbelt scandal as an example that such change could happen. “This is [Ford’s] playbook. He says one thing like he did on the Greenbelt. He promised us he wasn’t gonna do anything there. Turned around, introduced legislation to carve up the Greenbelt. This is no different. And the reason I want to mention that to you is because you know what happened with the Greenbelt? We got him to reverse course.”
“How did we do it? Just like this. People who care about the environment, parents who care about the future for their kids, farmers who feed our families, First Nations who deserve first, prior, and informed consent on any project on this land, we came together and we organized and we pushed back.”