Between clarifying past mistakes and addressing traffic concerns, Green For Life Environmental representatives explained on Thursday what they’re doing at the Coniston Industrial Park.
The waste management company hosted a more than two-hour meeting at the Colonial Sports Bar in Coniston, much of which spent answering questions.
Midway through the meeting, Ron Vaillancourt, born and raised in Coniston, elicited applause from the packed audience when he cautioned GFL Environmental Inc. staff, “Dot your i’s and cross your t’s,” adding, “You’ll never, ever, pull anything past the people of Coniston.”
Vaillancourt shared that he worked at the since-shuttered Coniston smelter back in the day, at the same site of the present-day Coniston Industrial Park, and that he has seen firsthand how badly things can go when the environment is mistreated.
Harkening back to the pre-regreening days of Greater Sudbury’s barren landscape, he told GFL staff, “We know what can happen when things go wrong.”
At issue is a proposal by Coniston Industrial Park Ltd. and GFL tabled with the city to amend the city’s Official Plan and rezone land to accommodate their current and future operations.
GFL currently operates a transfer station that manages contaminated soil and certain liquid wastes at Coniston Industrial Park and they plan on opening an on-site transfer station for curbside household recyclables.
The municipal application, which included mention of handling of “hazardous” waste and the net addition of 140 truck trips through the heart of Coniston per day, raised eyebrows during a planning committee meeting of city council on Nov. 3.
Between community opposition, unanswered questions and complaints from some residents unaware of the proposal, the committee deferred a decision to Jan. 26.
Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh, who represents the area on city council, connected with GFL Environmental Inc. to urge them to host a community meeting before then to better explain the project to the public, which they followed through with on Thursday.
Two key points to come out of the meeting were:
- The 140-truck estimate shared in November was a mistake, said Planscape senior planner Debbie Vandenakker, who is representing the applicant, GFL. The new all-in total for GFL operations once fully realized under the application will be 30 trucks in, 30 trucks out, for a total of 60, which is less than half of the previous estimate shared. There are currently seven trucks in/out per day, which will increase to the full 30 once the recycling transfer station is in operation.
- The “hazardous” waste is mostly oil, oily waters and glycols, GFL regional director of operations Craig Logan said. “That’s collected from commercial automotive facilities, so your gas stations, Canadian Tires and those types of facilities.” Other hazardous wastes could be such things as packaged pharmaceuticals. When an audience member asked whether there’d be nuclear waste involved, the proponents chuckled, clarifying that nuclear waste would require a whole other level of provincial approvals which they have not sought.
During Thursday’s meeting, Logan also clarified that although the province allows GFL to operate 24/7, as reported during the Nov. 3 meeting, their actual operations are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and there are no plans to change this.
Despite dropping from a projected 140 truck trips through Coniston to 60, many residents still appeared unimpressed by the projected increase in traffic.
Resident Joe Shaw of Wahnapitae, with connections to Coniston, elicited the loudest applause of the night when he brought up various traffic concerns.
Although GFL operates in an industrial area, all of their vehicles travel through the heart of Coniston to get to and from their property in the Coniston Industrial Park.
Trucks turn from Highway 17 onto Second Avenue, proceed through the town south to Government Road, west to Edward Avenue South and southward into the industrial park.
“This is not about NIMBYs,” Shaw said. “We want to trust you, we want jobs in the community, but we want to have safety.”
Shaw joined others in recommending an alternative route in and out of the park via the construction of a road outside of the town’s core, but Vandenakker clarified that GFL is only a tenant of Coniston Industrial Park.
They’re approximately five years into a 15-year lease with options to extend, she said, noting that permanent infrastructure to serve the entire park is beyond the auspices of any individual tenant.
Other recommendations area residents shared, such as installing crosswalks and other pedestrian infrastructure, is better handled by the municipality, she said.
However, when it comes to advocating for an alternative access point to the industrial park, GFL regional vice president Chris Dovigi said, “We’ll definitely be a voice and we’ll advocate for that.”
On the potential for such things as spills and other emergent situations, Logan clarified that GFL has emergency responders on site. Although they serve a broad region, he said they’re backfilled with staff when responders are called away to incidents.
A November 2021 incident GFL was responsible for in which an explosion took place at the Coniston Industrial Park, sending the smell of chlorine through the area, was also raised as a concern during Thursday’s meeting. Logan said such an incident is no longer a possibility because they’ve “removed the chlorine practice.”
Although Coniston Industrial Park and GFL are applying for changes in land use in their submissions to the planning committee of city council, they’re already doing many of the things they’re applying to be allowed to do and are municipally non-compliant in doing so.
The only change from current-day use will be the addition of a transfer station for recyclables, which is part of a broader shift from municipal responsibility to producer responsibility. The handling of recycling which currently takes place on Frobisher Drive will shift to Coniston, as the municipality is no longer responsible for the recyclable material.
Similar to their current handling of contaminants, GFL’s Coniston site will serve as a transfer station at which smaller trucks unload materials which larger trucks cart to southern Ontario.
Unlike at Frobisher, curbside recyclables aren't sorted locally. Instead, they’re sent in bulk to a recycling facility in southern Ontario which “is fully automated so that we can get 95-per-cent catch for rates on recycling,” Dovigi said.
While GFL has maintained Environmental Compliance Approvals throughout their approximately five years of operations at the Coniston Industrial Park, they haven’t been in compliance with municipal Official Plan and zoning regulations, Vandenakker said.
“Please recognize the dance that I’m going to do here,” she said in response to a question of why they’re not in compliance with the municipality. “I don’t know the specifics, but what I do know is that the ECAs that have been approved for GFL come from the province and the province does ask for a zoning conformity exercise.”
It’s through this exercise that the city flagged GFL’s non-compliance, which resulted in the application process currently underway.
While they’ve admitted to using unpermitted buildings, Vandenakker said the building they plan on using as a curbside recycling transfer station now has a building permit.
“The city’s been working really hard and really well for the most part with the technical team trying to get the permits in place, recognizing of course that this is an appropriate use in the industrial park.”
A report by city planner Wendy Kaufman recommends that the planning committee of city council approves the Coniston Industrial Park / GFL application for Official Plan and rezoning changes, which includes both current non-compliant uses and future expanded use (curbside recycling).
The lands are suitably industrial, Kaufman wrote, follow provincial guidelines and “represent good planning.”
Both Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer and Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier attended Thursday’s meeting. McIntosh had intended on attending the meeting, but was stuck at Toronto Pearson airport due to a winter storm cancelling flights.
While Sizer stuck around until near the end of the meeting, Cormier left mid-way through after a resident took note of the fact GFL is publicly traded and asked, “How many people on city council got some stocks?”
The question was chased by a mix of clapping and groans from those in attendance.
Within earshot of the resident and loud enough to distract Vandenakker at the front of the room, Cormier said as he left the building, loud enough for the questioner to hear, “I’ve got to cash in a few stocks.”
Cormier chairs the planning committee of city council and will head the Jan. 26 meeting at which city council members will make their final official plan and zoning decisions on the GFL application.
The meeting is an extension of the Nov. 3 planning committee meeting, during which a decision was deferred to make way for the Thursday public meeting and give GFL a chance to answer questions they didn’t have the answers for the first time around and reach out to the broader community beyond the minimum notice required by city bylaw.
The Jan. 26 meeting is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and can be viewed in-person at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azilda. It can also be livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.