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It’s Over!

FORCE Community Funds Poll

Together, We Did Succeed! The recent agreement between the Ontario Government and St Marys Cement brings an end to the proposed Flamborough quarry and all the associated legal proceedings.

After significant investment to protect our safe, clean environment and the place we call home, we now have the pleasant task of positively investing the remaining Community Funds, estimated to be in the range of $150 – 200k. As a not-for-profit organization, FORCE is required to distribute the funds consistent with its founding mandate.

Your views on how best to distribute the funds to benefit our Communities are important. Please take a few minutes and complete the following brief survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T8L7DLJ

If you wish you can print the survey <click here> and mail it to us at:

Friends of Rural Communities and the Environment (FORCE)
Lawson Park Ltd, Box 15
RR#1 Freelton, ON L0R 1K0

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View the Slides from the April 2nd Community Meeting < Click Here > (1.4MB PDF)

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It’s Over!

Provisions of the Provincial / St Marys Cement Agreement are Strong

It really does appear that our Community’s nine long year battle against the proposed Flamborough Quarry is finally over!

After reviewing the details of the agreement between the Ontario Provincial Government and St Marys Cement our Communities can finally rest easy. We can now be assured that our drinking water, natural environment, homes, farms, schools and businesses - the things our Communities have been fighting for - are no longer at risk.

The agreement places a Conservation Covenant on all the proposed quarry lands along the 11th Concession East, both the proposed initial development lands as well as the expected expansion lands, and prohibits any aggregate extraction on those lands as well as anything that will “materially affect the quantity or quality of water flowing over or under the lands”.

In addition a large portion of those lands will be designated as a “Protected Area” and those areas will be subject to additional restrictions. These restrictions include: No buildings or other structures. No roadways, walkways, or parking areas. No alterations to the topology, no digging, dredging or removal of soil. No dumping of soil, ashes, garbage, etc. No interference with any waterways or other bodies of water. No fencing which would restrict the movement of wildlife. As examples.

This covenant is registered on the title of the lands meaning that the restrictions will apply to whoever owns the lands in the future. The threat of any large industrial operation being established on those lands in the midst of our rural residential and agricultural Communities is over.

If you are interested in learning the details of the agreement and the restrictions placed on the lands please plan on attending this informational meeting:

 

FORCE 2013 AGM & Informational Meeting

Tuesday April 2nd 2013, 7:00pm

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School

1624 Centre Road, Carlisle

 

This truly is a wonderful development. Without this agreement we were looking at years of protracted expensive legal battles. All three levels of government were being forced to expend significant resources on this matter rather than being able to invest in more positive priorities.

MPP Ted McMeekin and his colleagues at Queens Park deserve our gratitude for getting this deal done. They were supportive right from the start and they did not give up until the threats to our Communities were finally resolved. We should also acknowledge the willingness of St Marys Cement’s new senior leadership to reach this agreement and abandon the plans for the proposed Flamborough Quarry.

It is our Communities however that are the real champions. Without each of us remaining committed to protecting our families, homes and businesses, this outcome would not have been possible. We decided early on that a professional and substantive engagement from our Communities was going to be required. We invested together as a Community to make that happen. Our Community’s work set the stage for the decision makers. It allowed them to understand why we were so concerned and provided them with the facts they needed in order to make their decision to support our concerns. If our Communities had not taken up the fight the outcome would have been very different. It is in celebration of that Community engagement and commitment that we will be hosting a celebration.

 

Community Celebration Event

Sunday June 2nd

Lunchtime BBQ and Party

Carlisle Golf & Country Club

 

This threat had hung over our Communities for almost nine years. It would have been easy to get discouraged. Often every victory we seemed to achieve was met with yet another challenge. But we didn’t give up, we didn’t accept the unacceptable. We worked hard for the values we knew were important to all of us, a safe and healthy environment, and to protect what we treasured, the place where we live, our home.

Congratulations to our Communities!

Together We Will Did Succeed!

 

Documents relating to Agreement:
FORCE Press Release SMC ON Agreement - March 9, 2013 (PDF 60KB)
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada Issues Statement on St Marys VCNA - March 8, 2013 (PDF 41KB)
Government of Ontario / SMC Agreement Registered on Title - instrument 5331547 (PDF 1.2MB)
Government of Ontario / SMC Agreement Registration Notice - instrument WE886749 (PDF 20KB)
Province Press Release re agreement with Company - March 9, 2013 (PDF 20KB)
SMC Website Statement regarding agreement with the Province - March 8, 2013 (PDF 67KB)

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"NO REASONABLE MAN WOULD PUT A QUARRY HERE

March 2013 - PROVINCE AND ST MARYS REACH AGREEMENT TO KILL PROPOSED QUARRY

FORCE was pleased to learn about the agreement announced yesterday between the Province and St Marys Cement whose objectives appear to be to resolve the numerous outstanding legal and tribunal cases between them and to insure that no quarry is built in North East Flamborough.Read More...

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It's not over...yeT!

• Did you know that St Marys Cement is attempting to have the Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) that stopped the proposed Flamborough Quarry cancelled?
• Did you know that the company has requested a hearing before the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) regarding the MZO?
• Did you know that St Marys Cement has applied for yet another Permit To Take Water (PTTW)? Did you know that the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has said No?
• Did you know that the company has now appealed the permit refusal to the Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT)?

St Marys Cement has been told NO. In our democratic system, however, the company has 'appeal rights'. Unfortunately for our Communities, they have chosen to use them. This means that we are facing costly, and possibly lengthy, hearings beginning this fall.

Whether you are new to the issue, or have been engaged for the entire journey, we invite you to further explore the information on this website. Read our story. Watch the video links to hear some of our neighbours talk about their real concerns. Catch up on the latest updates. Stay informed and engaged.

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Imagine, if you can, what it would be like if this proposed quarry were ever approved.

• A 164 acre hole. That's the size of 124 NFL football fields!
• An excavation that, in places, is 40 metres or 130 feet deep. That's the depth of a 10 storey building!
• Some 90 million litres of water per day flowing in and then out of that hole. That's an amount of water equivalent to 36 Olympic sized swimming pools! Or described another way, that's approximately 20 times the maximum volume that the local Carlisle Municipal System is allowed to pump! The proponent's technical reports indicate quarry dewatering would have negative impacts. A theoretical quarry water recirculation system, unproven on the site, is proposed as the solution.
• Up to 820 trucks entering and leaving the area. That's over 1,600 trucks trips per day, during peak periods, or one truck movement every 26 seconds! The company's final transportation study with preferred haul route(s) is still pending. We say no haul route is a good route.

We hope you will see why our Communities have chosen to invest what limited time and financial resources we have to stand up for what we believe is right. We also hope you will recognize our Communities' accomplishments, to date, and help us to build on lessons learned. With the MZO freezing the zoning on the lands and all governments and agencies objecting to the proposal, we have done what few communities have been able to do; we've turned the momentum in our Communities' favour.

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Our Communities' Accomplishments

• We adopted a professional, substantive, science based approach.
• We learned the 'rules of the game' for the approvals processes and met them step by step.
• We built community and stakeholder consensus with school, farm and other organizations – our Communities sent in more than 1200 objection letters and (re) confirmations!
• We worked with and gained alignment with the staff and elected representatives of all the relevant municipal and provincial governments, including agency concerns from the conservation authority and medical officers of health/public health departments. They echoed many of our concerns in their submissions.
• We secured support from our local and area members from all the major political parties – Conservative, Liberal and NDP. They all agree this is the wrong development for our Communities.

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Learn what you can do to help our community bring an end to this.

We need to keep doing what we have been doing – pooling our resources and hiring the right experts to make our case - to make sure our voices are heard in those hearings – to support our local and provincial governments – to get this proposed quarry stopped once and for all. The momentum is in our favour. Let's make the most of it.

• Add your voice and support!
• Volunteer to help in whatever way suits your skills and time availability.
• Make a financial commitment to invest in our Communities and protect what we value.

In the end, we intend to preserve a very special area for generations to come – to safeguard our drinking water, to ensure we can safely travel on our local roadways, to preserve our environment, and to protect our families, homes, farms, businesses, and schools. We hope that you will choose to add your support at this time, as well, because after all,