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HomeMy WebLinkAboutADMIN-2-92 THE CORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF NEWCASTLE REPORT REVISED Meeting: General Purpose and Administration Committee File # LD). ~:(<,'J-/ 0L , Res. ~f~\ · f.;' , ; '\ Date: January 20 1992 Report #: ADMIN. 2 - 9~le #: By-Law # Subject: BILL 143, THE WASTE MANAGEMENT ACT, 1991 Recommendations: It is respectfully recommended that the following recommendations be approved: 1. THAT Report ADMIN. 2 - 92 be received; 2. THAT Report ADMIN. 2 - 92, and the recommendations contained therein be approved as the Town's submission to the Ontario Legislature's Standing Committee on Social Development regarding Bill 143, the Waste Management Act, 1991 and be forwarded to the Standing Committee; 3. THAT the Mayor and/or any appropriate staff be authorized to present the Town's submission regarding Bill 143 to the Standing Committee, if an appointment can be arranged; 4. THAT a copy of the Town's submission to the Standing Committee regarding Bill 143 be forwarded to the Regional Municipality of Durham; and 5. THAT all of the above recommendations be approved FORTHWITH. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Bill 143 is an Act respecting the management of waste in the Greater Toronto Area. It also amends certain provisions of the Environmental Protection Act dealing with waste management and disposal. Attachment #1 to this report provides the background analysis related to the provisions of Bill 143 that are of greatest significance to the Town of Newcastle. RECYClED~PAPIER PAPER~RECYCLE THIS IS PAINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER 1.2 Integral to the Government of Ontario's implementation of its policies concerning waste management and disposal in the Greater Toronto Area is the use of a corporate vehicle, the Interim Waste Authority Ltd. ("IWA"). The IWA was incorporated under the Business Corporations Act, 1982. If it was not for the provisions of Bill 143 discussed below, the IWA would be required to comply with all of the laws of Ontario including the Environmental Assessment Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Municipal Act, the Planning Act, the Regional Municipality of Durham Act and municipal by-laws passed under the authority of provincial legislation. 1.3 Bill 143 continues the IWA as a Crown agency, and as such as a matter of law, the IWA will be subject only to those Provincial Acts and By-laws passed under them which contain a specific provision to the effect that the Act and By-laws passed under it bind the Crown. Of the Acts referred to in Paragraph 1.2, only the Environmental Assessment Act contains such a provision and therefore only that Act binds the Crown and Crown agencies. As a matter of law, the IWA will not be bound by Acts such as the Municipal Act, the Planning Act and Municipal By-laws passed under them. 1.4 Under Part II of Bill 143, the IWA is undertaking three landfill waste disposal sites including a single site to accommodate the Regional Municipality of Durham's Waste Disposal requirements for a twenty year period. The statutory requirements of the Environmental Assessment Act with respect to the content of environmental assessments applicable to all other Crown and Crown agency undertakings are to be dramatically reduced for the three landfill waste disposal sites to which Part II applies. This is a particularly serious matter for the Town of Newcastle, if it is considered by the IWA to be a candidate as a host community for the Durham Landfill Waste disposal site. 2. REVIEW 2.1 As Bill 143 stands, the IWA as a Crown agency would have legal authority to establish a Durham landfill waste disposal site in the Town of Newcastle without complying either with the Official Plan or with the Zoning by-law. It would be open to the IWA to sidestep entirely the local planning process that is applicable to industry and residents alike and to replace it with a consultative process fashioned and managed by the Government and the IWA itself. The risks to the Town and to the people which could result from the avoidance of the local planning process, are too great to be accepted. Also, the IWA will not be bound by the Muncipal Act and By-laws passed under it. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT BILL 143 BE AMENDED TO PROVIDE THAT THE IWA IS SUBJECT TO THE MUNICIPAL ACT, THE PLANNING ACT AND BY-LAWS PASSED UNDER THEM. 2.2 Under Bill 143, the IWA would be armed with the extraordinary power to expropriate land for landfill waste disposal sites as well as limited interests in land. It would also have power to appoint inspectors who in turn would have the power to enter on privately or municipally owned land, including road allowances, and conduct tests including soil tests considered necessary to meet the requirements of or to obtain an approval under any Act for a landfill waste disposal site. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT BILL 143 BE AMENDED TO PROVIDE THAT IN THE CASE OF MUNICIPALLY-OWNED PROPERTY, THE CONSENT OF THE MUNICIPALITY MUST FIRST BE OBTAINED BEFORE SUCH AN INSPECTION CAN TAKE PLACE. 2.3 Although the Environmental Assessment Act will apply to the IWA as a Crown Agency, Part II of Bill 143 severely reduces the requirements for environmental assessments of the IWA's undertaking of three landfill waste disposal sites including the one for Durham Region. At the same time, Part II establishes parameters for site selection that would require the IWA to select a single site with a twenty year capacity to accommodate waste from the Regional Municipality of Durham and to select that site exclusively from land within Durham. These parameters may be regarded as arbitrary, denying to the IWA the opportunity of selecting two or more sites to satisfy Durham Region'S requirements over a twenty year period, both or any of which may be located beyond the boundaries of the Regional Municipality. These extraordinary provisions appear to be driven more by expediency than by a concern for the environment. The IWA's published timetable would have the Durham landfill waste disposal site selected, approved, acquired and operating by January 1 1996, an exceptionally tight schedule. Unfortunately the reduction in the required content of environmental assessments provided by Part II of Bill 143 would result in an incomplete environmental assessment for each undertaking. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT PART II OF BILL 143 BE AMENDED TO REQUIRE THE IWA TO COMPLY FULLY WITH THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT ACT AND TO PERMIT THE IWA TO CONSIDER SMALLER SITES BOTH WITHIN AND BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF THE REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY WHERE THERE IS A WILLING HOST COMMUNITY TO ACCOMMODATE WASTE TO BE DISPOSED OF IN A LANDFILL WASTE DISPOSAL SITE OVER A TWENTY YEAR PERIOD. 2.4 The cost to the Town's taxpayers of participating in a hearing by the Environmental Assessment Board or the Consolidated Hearings Board of an environmental assessment submitted by the IWA as proponent of a single landfill waste disposal site for Durham Region would be substantial. As interpreted by the Environmental Assessment Board and the Consolidated Hearings Board, funding will not be available to the Town of Newcastle in respect of an environmental assessment under the provisions of the Intervenor Funding Project Act, 1988 unless it is amended. Bill 143 does not propose any such amendment. The Intervenor Funding Project Act, 1988 also is inadequate since it does not provide for funding of participants, including municipalities in processes leading up to the hearing of an application for acceptance of the proponent's environmental assessment of a proposed undertaking. Bill 143 does not require the IWA to establish and implement a participant funding policy. However, if participant funding is provided from any source, Bill 143 would require an intervenor funding panel under the Intervenor Funding Project Act, 1988 to consider the amount of participant funding received by the person or persons and the use made of that funding. It would be unfair if the burden of responding to an initiative of the IWA in the Town of Newcastle falls on the taxpayers of the Town and on the individuals affected by the initiative rather than on the IWA. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT BILL 143 BE AMENDED TO REQUIRE THE IWA TO ESTABLISH AND IMPLEMENT A PARTICIPANT FUNDING POLICY AND TO MAKE MUNICIPALITIES ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE BOTH SUCH FUNDING AND INTERVENOR FUNDING UNDER THE INTERVENOR FUNDING PROJECT ACT, 1988. 2.5 Under Part IV of Bill 143, the Cabinet will have extraordinary regulation making powers, the exercise of which may have significant environmental and/or financial ramifications for the municipality. There is no right of appeal from a decision expressed in a regulation unless the legislation under which the regulation is made so provides. No appeal is provided for in Bill 143. This is not satisfactory to the Town. IT IS RECOMMENDED IN THE INSTANCES IDENTIFIED THAT BILL 143 BE AMENDED TO PROVIDE FOR A RIGHT OF APPEAL FROM THE MAKING OF SUCH A REGULATION TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT BOARD. 2.6 The establishment of a landfill waste disposal site in a municipality can have profound environmental, social economic and financial impacts on the municipality concerned. In the case of the proposed Durham landfill waste disposal site, under Bill 143 as it stands, this may apply to a single municipality or perhaps two municipalities within the Regional Municipality of Durham. The primary service area for the Durham Landfill Waste Disposal site, however, is the entire Regional Municipality. The burden of hosting a site will fall on the municipality or municipalities in which the site is located while the benefit will accrue to all of the residents and industries within the entire Regional Municipality of Durham. The Province itself also will benefit insofar as the establishment of such a site is an integral part of the Province's waste disposal strategy. This is not equitable. Benefits and burdens associated with the Durham Landfill Waste Disposal site should be shared more fairly. In the case of Darlington Nuclear Generating Station "A", Ontario Hydro and the Town of Newcastle negotiated and executed a Community Impact Agreement in 1977. It contains financial provisions designed to offset, at least in part the financial burden that the establishment of the Station in the Town otherwise would create for the taxpayers. The Cooperative Siting Task Force dealing with the removal from the Town and other municipalities to new long-term waste management facilities of low-level radio active waste, also has proposed the negotiation and execution of a comparable community impact agreement with the new host municipality or municipalities. In its report entitled "The Draft Approach and Criteria Landfill Site Search" dated August 1991, the IWA acknowledged that lithe concept of compensation is frequently raised in facility siting processes...as a means of offsetting unavoidable adverse residual impacts or damages, or to redress unfair distribution of costs and benefits". After stating that the question whether and what kind of compensation ought to be provided in the siting of a landfill facility is a matter that requires careful and detailed consideration, the IWA's report provides no indication as to the direction in which it is heading in the resolution of this important issue. No reference whatsoever is made in Bill 143 to the issue of compensation except where land is expropriated from a private property owner. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT BILL 143 SHOULD REQUIRE THE IWA AS A MITIGATIVE MEASURE TO MAKE A COMMUNITY IMPACT AGREEMENT (S) TO REDRESS THE MISMATCH OF BENEFITS AND BURDENS WITH THE MUNICIPALITY/MUNICIPALITIES CONCERNED PRIOR TO THE SUBMISSION OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE PROPOSED DURHAM LANDFILL WASTE DISPOSAL SITE TO THE MINISTER PURSUANT TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT ACT. 3. SUMMARY This report provides those aspects of Bill 143, The Waste Management Act 1991, which have the most significant impact on the Town of Newcastle and as such it is recommended that various changes be made to same. Attachment #1 provides the background analysis of the prov1s1ons of Bill 143 of particular relevance to the Town. A copy of Bill 143 is available for inspection. Respectfully submitted, At, Officer Att.#l 11('8. , i \..' A1TACHMENT #1 TO REPORT ADMIN 2.92 BA~GROtJND ANALYSIIj o~~~~g:~ Qf BILl.. 143 OF PAATlCULAR THE TOWN Qf NEWCASTLE 1. Bill 143 consists of four Parts of which Parts I. II and IV are of the greatest significance to the Town of Newcastle at the present time. Part J of Bill 143 2. The Interim Waste Authority Ltd., ("lWA") was incorporated under the Business Corporations Act, 1982 with the Minister Responsible for the GT A. the Honourable Ruth Grier as its sole shareholder. The Boar~ of Directors of IW A is composed of senior public servants. Nineteen public servants apparently have been seconded to the IWA mostly from the Ontario public service. Clearly, it is to be the Government of Ontarids corporate vehicle for implementing important parts of the government's waste management and disposal policies in the Greater Toronto Area. The IW A is an extension of the Government itself. 3. Under Bi1l143, the IWA is continued as a Crown agency. lbis is most significant. As a matter of law, neither the Crown or a Crown agency are subject to, that is . .' ~ required to comply with Official Plans. zoning by-laws and the planning process. mandated by the Planning Act. Although as a matter of policy, the rw A may_ elect to comply with Official Plans and zoning by-laws and obtain necessary amendments to them to permit a landfill waste disposal site. under Bill 143 as it stands, the IW A would be free (i) to establish such a policy and then repudiate it if unhappy with either the direction, or the liJ.:ely results of the local planning process, or (2) to decline to establish such a policy. The risks to the Town from such actions by the IW A are excessive particularly when the provisions of Part II of Bill 143, discussed below, are taken into account. As will be seen, Part IT provides requirements that - 2 . are inadequate to ensure that a proper balance is achieved between the establishment by the IW A of a single landfill waste disposal site for Regional Municipality of Durham with a twenty year capacity, and the conservation of the environment and protection of people and property from the negative impacts of such a site and its inspection. 4. l}ilI 143 gives the IW A power to expropriate land for the purpose of establishing landf1l1 waste disposal sites in the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, the Regional Municipality of Durham, the Regional Municipality of Peel and the Regional Municipality of York. 5. If the IW A decides to expropriate land fora landrtll waste disposal site. the Minister designated responsible fOf the administration of Part I of the Waste Management Act. 1991 who is expected to be the Honourable R:uth Grier, the Minister of the Environment, is tbe approving authority under Section 5 of the Expropriations Act. Under the latter Act, the approval of the approving authority is required before a pr~posed expropriation of land can be undertaken. 6. Bill 143 prohibits the Minister from approving a proposed expropriation until a certificate of approval or a provisional certificate of approval allowing the use of the land for a landfill waste disposal site has been issued under Part V of the . Environmental Protection Act. 7. By implication Part V of the Act is made applicable to the rWA althOUgh-as a matter of law generally neither the Crown nor Crown agencies are subject to it. A certificate of approval or a provisional certificate of approval is required under Part V of the Environmental Protection Act as a condition precedent to the lawful use, operation, establishment, alteration, enlargement or extension of a waste disposal site. Also under Part V a hearing before the Environmental Assessment Board is required where an application is made for a certificate of approval respecting a site .3- for the dispos~ of waste that the Director ascertains. having regard to the nature and quantity of the waste, is the equivalent of the domestic waste of not less than fifteen hundred persons. 8. Although Ministerial approval is required to authorized the proposed expropriation, if the IW A proposes to expropriate a limited interest in land for the purpose of carrying out an inspection, the special condition referred to above in paragraph 2 respecting the issuance of a certificate of approval or provisional certificate of approval allowing the use of the land for a landfill waste disposal site under Part V of the Environmental Protection Act, does not apply. 9. Under Bi11143 an inspector appointed by the IWA will have the extraordinary right to enter On and inspect any land (except dwelling) for the purpose of obtaining information that he considers necessary to meet the requirements of or obtain an approval under any Act relating to the planning. establishment, operation or management of a landfill waste disposal site. In this connection, the inspector will have authority to conduct surveys, examinations, investigations and tests of the land and to take and remove samples or extracts thereof. After an inspection has been completed, Bill 143 requires that the site must be restored so far as is practicable. 10. When the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was searching for a new landf111 ' waste disposal site in 1988. several sites were identified in the Town of Newcastle. . One of these sites (N-I) was located adjacent to the site of the Darlington Nuclear Generation Station. Acting in the Town's interest, the Town Council refused Metropolitan Toronto's request to conduct tests involving the installation of observation wells on Town owned perimeter road allowances. This decision of Council probably contributed to the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto's decision not to pursue this site. In similar circumstances under Bill 143 the Town could not refuse permission to the IW A to conduct similar tests on Town owned road allowances. This result is not in the Town's interest. . 4 - Part II of !Jill 14~ 11. Part II of Bi11143 deals with Waste Disposal Sites. It is of great significance to the TOWIl. 12. 'part n applies in respect of three specific undertakings of the IW A and the environmental assessments to be submitted under the Environmental Assessment Act in respect of them. One site is to be located in the Regional Municipality of Peel; the second site is to be located in the Regional Municipality of York or the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto or partially in both; and the third site is to be located in the Regional Municipality of Durham. Each single site is to have as its primary function the disposal of waste generated in the regional municipality (or regional municipality and metropolitan municipality) concerned over a period of at least twenty years. '. 13. In determining the capacity of a landfill waste disposal site for a twenty year period, under Section 13 of Bill 143 the IWA is required to take into account two estimates which are to be provided by the Minister of the Environment to the IW A. First, the Minister is to estimate the amount of waste that would otherwise be expected to be generated in the primary service area during a twenty year period that will not be . generated because of waste reduction efforts. Second. the Minister is to estimate the . amount of waste that will be generated in the primary service area during a twenty year period that will not need to be disposed of in the site because of the reuse or recycling of materials that are or could become waste. This underlines the role of the IW A as an extension of the Government of Ontario and as the Government's implementation vehicle. 14. Since the IW A is continued as a Crown agency, the Environmental Assessment Act . applies in respect of its enterprises or activities or proposal~ plans or programs in .5- respect of enterprises or activities. That Act, unlike the Planning Act, expressly provides that it binds the Crown. 15. Under the Environmental Asse.s.sment Act, the proponent of an undertalcingis required to submit to the Minister an environmental assessment of the undertaking. The proponent is prohibited from proceeding with the undertaking until the environmental assessment has been accepted by the Minister and the Minister has gIven his approval to proceed with the undertaking. These provisions will apply to the IW A as a Crown agency. 16: In the ordinary case of a Crown or municipal undertaking, the Environmental Assessment Act specifies the required contents of tbe environmental as..~essment which is to he submitted to the Minjster. The Act provides as standard requirements: 5(3) An environmental assessment submitted to the Minister , pursuant to subsection (1) shall consist of, (a) a description of the purpose of the undertaking; (b) a description of and a statement of the rationale for, (i) the undertaking, (ii) the alternative methods of carrying out the undertaking, and (iii) the alternatives to the undertaking; (c) a description of, .6. (i) the environment that will be affected or that might reasonably be expected to be affected, directly or indirectly, (ii) the effects that will be caused or that might reasonably be expected to he caused to the environment, and (Hi) the actions necessary or that may reasonably be expected to he necessary to prevent, change. mitigate or remedy the effects Upon or the effects that might reasonably be expected upon the environment. by the undertaking, the alternative methods of carrying out the undertaking and the alternatives to the undertaking; and (d) an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages to the environment of the undertaking, the alternative methods of carrying out the undertaking and the alternatives to the undertaking. 17. As an exception to the standard requirements of the Environmental Assessment Act in the case of undertakings by the IW A comprising one of the three landfill waste disposal sites including the proposed Durham site in respect of which Part II applies, Bill 143 greatly reduces the required contents of the environmental assessments for the landfill waste disposal sites in question. As an exception to the ~ 7 ~ standard requirements of the Environmental Assessment Act in respect of such undertakings by the IWA, Section 14(1) of Bi11143 provides that the environmental assessments of them are not required to contain: (a) any description of, or statement of the rationale for, any alternative to the landfill waste disposal site other thHIly (i) reduction in the amount of waste generated in the primary service area, (ii) reuse or recycling of materials that are or could become waste, and (iii) USe of other single landfill waste disposal sites in the primary service area; or (b) any description or evaluation of any matter relating to any alternative to the landfill waste disposal site other than, (i) reduction in the amount of waste generated in the primary servi ce area, (ii) reuse or recycling of materials that are or couId become waste, and (Hi) use of other single landfill waste disposal sites in the primary service area. .8- 18. As a further exception to the standard requirements of the Environmental Assessment Act, Section 14(2) of Bill 143 provides that the environmental assessments for the three undertakings in question are not required to contain any description of or statement of the rational fOf, or any description or evaluation of any matter relating to: (a) an alternative of waste reduction or reuse or recycling if that alternative would involve incineration of waste or the transportation of waste from the primary service area to any other area; or (b) an alternative of some other single landfill waste disposal site if the capacity of the other site would appear to be inadequate in view of the estimate provided under section 13. (Section 13 is di~cussed in paragraph 16 below in this Attachment) 19. These reductions in the required content of environmental assessments provided by Bill 143 are of crucial significance to the Town. 20. Section 2 of the Environmental Assessment Act provides that its purpose is: 'The betterment of the people of the wbole or any part of Ontario by providing for the protection, conservation and wise management in - Ontario of the environment." The Act provides for an evaluative decision-making process that ordinarily involves the weighing of alternatives to the undertaking in question and the manner in which it is proposed that tbe undertaking will proceed. In the case of the three undertakings of the IW A in question by reducing the requirement in question that .9- alternatives to the undertaking be identified, Bill 143 will make it difficult if not impossible for full evaluative consideration of a proposed undertaking to be made by the Environmental Assessment Board and a satisfactory result achieved from the standpoint of all concerned. 21. It is interesting to note that in its report dated August 1991 and entitled ''Draft t\pproacb and Criteria for Durham Region Landfill Site Search" (the "IW A report"). tbe IW A stated that: The process of establishing the three landfill sites will be consistent with the requirements of the Environmental Assessment Act and other applicable legislation. (Page 1-1) 22. In chapter 2 of the IW A report, the IW A reproduced the provisions of the Environmental Assessment Act which are discussed above and stated that: The content of the Durham Landfill Search Environmental Assessment document will include the above (provision of the Environmental Assessment Act regarding the content of environmental assessments) subject to any revisions as a result of the provincial legislation defining the IW A's activities and powers. (Page 2.2) 23. In comparison with the standard requirements for the content of an environmental assessment provided by the Environmental Assessment Act, Section 14(1) and 14(2) of Bil1143 drastically reduce the required contents of the environmental assessments of the three undertakings in question. Under the Environmental Assessment Act, the undertaking, alternatives to the undertaking and alternative methods of carrying out the undertaking each are to be described and their rationale stated. The environmental impacts of each of them together with reasonable mitigative measures . 10 ~ is to _be described. Finally, the environmental assessment is to contain an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages to the environment of each of tbe undertaking and the alternatives. 24. In contrast, environmental assessments of the undertakings to which Part II of Bill 143 applies are required to deal only with three specific alternatives to the -.undertaking. These alternatives include the use of another smile landfill was~ flisposal site in the primary service area. 25. In identifying another location for a single landfill waste disposal site for the Regional Municipality of Durham with capacity for a twenty year period, a site outside the Region, if available, should be open to consideration. Also, two or more smaller sites within or outside the Region which might result in more manageable negative environmental impacts. should also be open to consideration. 26. Additionally, the alternatives of transportation of waste from Durham as the primary service area to another area, and incineration are not required to be dealt with in the environmental assessments of the three undertakings in question as a matter of Government policy. rather than as a result of a determination made in an open process to determine whether the environmental assessment for the proposed undertakings should be accepted by the Minister of the Environmental Assessment . Board. 27. The provisions of Bill 143 in this regard appear to have be on driven more by expediency than by a consideration of the commendable objectives of the Environmental Assessment Act which are lito provide for the protection, conservation and wise management in Ontario of the environment for the betterment of the people of the whole or any part of Ontario". It is interesting to note that in the rWA report, a very tight timetaple is proposed. The start~up date - 11 .. for the Durham landfill waste disposal site is stated to be January, 1996. The reason advanced by the IW A for this early date is that: Current projections of remaining capacity at the main landfill site, Brock West, serving the Region of Durham indicate that the approved capacity will be exhausted within two years. This will leave a shortfall of disposal capacity until a long..term facility is established. In response to this shortfall, the Minister of the Environment had to implement contingency measures. (Page 3-1) 28. The crucial question is whether this reason for the IW A's very tight timetable justifies the exceptions from the Environmental Assessment Act's standard requirements provided by BiJ1143 in respect of the Durham landfill waste disposal site. The Town believes that the answer to this question is no. : 29. Apart from reducing the standard requirements of the Environmental Assessment Act in respect of the content of the environmental assessment for the Durham landfill waste disposal site and the other two sites. Bill 143 provides that the Minister of the Environment may establish policies for the purposes of Part n which relate to such sites. In preparing an environmental assessment the IW A is to have . regard to any such policies. Very importantly, the person Or body determining . whether or not to approve an undertaking under the Environmental Assessment Act in respect of the Durham landfill waste disposal site is required to take - into consideration, among other things, any policies established by the Minister under Section 15(1) of Bill 143. The Town has reservations concerning both the appropriateness and the prudence of constraining the approving person or Board in this way. - 12 - 30. Bill 143 does not limit the range or type of policies that the Minister of the Environment may establish. It would be possible. for example, if the Government was detennined to go ahead with a particular Durham landfill waste disposal site proposed by the IW A, to establish through the Minister sufficiently detailed policies to make it impossible for the Environmental Assessment Board, a quasi-independent body. to make a decision which adequately takes into account local considerations. _Council is apprehensive' of the ramifications of delegating such a power to the Minister of the Environment. The current incumbent of course also is the sole shareholder of the IW A 31. Section 16 of Bill 143 deals with intervenor funding under the Intervenor Funding Project Act, 1988. That Act provides for the establishment and conduct of a pilot project relating to the provision of intervenor funding in proceedings before boards. An "intervenor" is a person or group of persons that has been granted status as an intervenor in a proceeding before a board. "Intervenor funding" is funding awarded under the Act to an intervenor in advance of but only in respect of a hearing before a board. The Intervenor Funding Project Act, 1988 does not provide for participant funding to participants in processes that precede the hearing itself. Participants generally are expected to fund their own activities. This can be very onerous. 32. Under the Intervenor Funding Project Act, 1988, in a proceeding before the . Environmental Assessment Board, the Board will first determine individual and . group applications for intervenor status. The Board then will notify all intervenors who have been granted intervenor status of the right to apply for intervenor funoing. The Board will also establish a funding panel. The funding proponent who is to pay the intervenors the funds awarded to them is determined by the Board. Ordinarily the funding proponent will be the proponent of the undertaking. The Board will then go on to determine how much funding is to be provided by the funding proponent for what purposes, and to what intervenors. The Act establishes rules that must be considered by the funding panel in deciding whether and to whom to - 13 . award intervenor funding. As interpreted by the Environmental Assessment Board, these roles deny intervenor funding to bodies such as the Town of Newcastle. This is unfair to the local taxpayers. 33. Section 16 of Bil1143 does not address either the limitations of intervenor funding, nor does it require the IW A to establish and implement a participant funding policy. ~ection 16 provides that in determining whether to award intervenor funding to a person or group of persons who received participant funding (i.e. funding to assist persons in participating at any part of the environmental assessment process to which the Intervenor Funding Project Act, 1988 does not apply) an intervenor funding panel may consider the amount of participant funding received and the use that the person or group made of that funding. Participant funding may be but is not required to be provided by any source. The Town believes that both intervenor funding and participant funding should be provided by the IW A and that the Town itself should be eligible for both. Part III of Bill 143 34. Part In of Bill 143 deals with interim waste disposal issues. It requires the Regional Municipality of Peel and the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto to maintain, operate, improve, extend, enlarge and alter the waste management systems consisting . of the Britannia Road waste disposal site and the Keele Valley waste disposal site, . respectively, in accordance with the reports made under Section 29 of the Environmental Protection Act by the Minister of the Environment to the Oerk of the Metropolitan Municipality. 35. The Regional Municipality of Durham is required to establish, maintain and operate a waste management system consisting of one or more transfer stations to ensure that it has a capacity to transport waste to waste disposal sites also in accordance with the report made under Section 29 of the Environmental Protection Act by the - 14 - Minister of the Environment to the Clerk of the Regional Municipality. 36. Section 29 of the Environmental Protection Act currently provides that where the Minister reports in writing to the clerk of a municipality that he is of the opinion that it is necessary in the public interest that waste be collected or that a waste management system or any part thereof he establishe<L maintained, operated, itnproved. extended, enlarged, altered, repaired or replaced, the municipality is required forthwith to do every possible act and thing in its power to implement the report of the Minister within the time specified and it is not necessary to obtain the assent of the electors to any by-law for incurring a debt for any such purpose. 37. The Honourable Ruth Grier's report to the Clerk of the Regional Municipality of Durham was dated August 15, 1991. It required that the Region establish and operate a transfer station at the Brock West Landfill and determine if additional transfer station locations are required. The Minister had announced that the upward extension of the Keele Valley landfill in the City of Vaughan would serve the GT Ns waste disposal requirements while the IW A's landfill site search is under way and new approved waste disposal site capacity is established. 38. Part ill of Bill 143 is extraordinary in that it requires a Regional or Metropolitan Municipality to comply with the requirementci of Section 17 of the Bill even if to do so would require that the municipality use. maintain, operate, establish, alter, . improve, enlarge or extend a waste management system or waste disposal site located in another municipality or dispose of waste generated in another municipality in a waste management system or waste disposal site that it owns, operates or controls. Deemed consents or approvals under various statutes are provided for. The requirements of Part III of BiU 143 override agreements made under certain Acts including the Regional Municipality of Durham Act, By-laws, the Planning Act, 1983 or a regulation or by-law made under it or an act or regulation designated and regulations made under Bill 143 or a by-law made under a - 15 - designated act. 39. Very significantly, the Environmental Assessment Act is made inapplicable to any undertaking established or carried on in order to comply with Section 17 of Bill 143. Further, the Director under the Environmental Protection Act is authorized to issue or amend a certificate of approval or provisional certificate of approval for a waste management system or waste disposal site without requiring the Environmental Assessment Board to hold the hearing if the certificate is issued or amended to enable a municipality to comply with Section 17. The certificate of approval or provisional certificate of approval may also override provisions applicable to the system Or site contained in an agreement made under the Municipal Act. the Planning Act, 1983, or the Regional Municipality of Durham Act or any Act designated under Section 17 of Bill 143. 40. In place of a hearing before the Environmental Assessment Board, provision is made in Part III of Bill 143 for tbe Director to give notice of an application for a certificate of approval and to receive and consider written submissions from any person. Bill 143 makes it clear however, that the Director is not obliged to hold a tfhearing" in the technical sense of that term. Therefore, as a matter of law the Director is not restricted to a consideration of the application for the certificate and the submissions in detennining whether to issue the certificate of approval under the Environmental Protection Act. This could prove to be unsatisfactory in practice. Part IV of Bill 1.4J 41. Part IV of Bill 143 makes a number of amendments to the Environmental Protection Act. The Minister's powers are extended very significantly. For example. Part IV provides that the Minister may for the purposes of the administration and enforcement of the Act and the regulations establish and operate, use, alter, enlarge and extend waste management system or waste disposal sites and discontinue . 16 . systems and close sites that have been established by the Minister. Under the Environmental Protection Act if he considers it advisable in the public interest. the Director also would have power to order a municipality, among other things, to establish, maintain, operate, improve, extend, enlarge. alter, repair or replace a waste management system Or waste disposal site. Obviously, powers such as these are exceptional and their exercise could have serious environmental and financial implications for a municipality and are of concern to the Town. 4~. Bill 143 provides for new provisions to be added to the Environmental Protection Act respecting litter, packaging, containers, disposal products and products that pose waste management problems. The Minister is to be authorized to conduct research and studies into aspects of the problems. PerSOIll\ are prohibited from using, offering for sale or selting any packaging, container or disposable product or any material for use in packaging. containers or disposable products contrary to the Act or the Regulations. :43. Bill 143 would amend Section 136(4) of the Environmental Protection Act to add regulation-making power under which the Cabinet, amongst other things could make regulations requiring municipalities and other persons as may be specified in the regulation to establish such waste disposal sites or waste management system as may be specified and to require such persons to maintai~ operate, improve. enlarge, alter, repair or replace the waste disposal sites or waste management systems in such . manner as may be specified in the Regulation. New powers are to be added to the Environmental Protection Act to authorize the Cabinet to make regulations governing the manner in which municipalities carry out the financial management of their waste management activities including the manner in which fmandaI information is to be communicated to the public and to make regulations regulating the waste management activities of municipalities. Again. no provision is made for an appeal from such a decision contained in a regulation. The exercise of these powers could have serious environmental and financial implications for a municipality and are of concern to the Town.