[All] Highland Quarry comments from Minister Jeffrey

[Jan]

  FYI 
Message from the Minister regarding the Highland Companies' Melancthon Quarry application
Over the past few weeks, my Ministry has heard a significant number of concerns regarding the length of the comment period for the Highland Companies' Melancthon Quarry application. I want to reassure the public and especially the residents of the Township of Melancthon that this is only the beginning of the licence application process.



On April 21, 2011 I indicated in the Legislature that I intended to consider comments outside the official Aggregate Resources Act objection period. To that end, I have extended the comment period for the Environmental Registry posting under the Environmental Bill of Rights for an additional 76 days. This will result in a total posting period of 122 days.



I invite any member of the public, as well as interested and affected agencies and stakeholders, to provide comments through the Registry -- the posting is listed under Registry Number: 011-2864. Comments on the Environmental Registry will be accepted until July 11, 2011, after which date the comment period will be closed. This two and a half month extension for the posting will provide an enhanced opportunity for all interested parties to review the proposal.



Individuals and agencies commenting through the Environmental Registry should be aware that these comments are not official objections under the Aggregate Resources Act. That means that these comments will be considered as part of the decision-making process rather than being directed to the applicant for resolution.



The Highland Companies now has two years to address and resolve all the official objections submitted during the 45-day objection period. This process ensures that all environmental and community concerns are fully addressed before the application can move forward.



If there are still unresolved objections to the licence application after the two year period, the Ministry of Natural Resources can refer the application to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). In the event of an OMB hearing, the Ministry will ensure that the comments received through the Environmental Registry are provided to the OMB for its consideration.



I recognize the ongoing concern the local community has expressed about this proposed quarry and acknowledge the significant number of responses received so far regarding this application. I remain committed to ensuring an open and transparent process surrounding this application and look forward to any further comments provided through the Registry.



Linda Jeffrey,
Minister of Natural Resources




--
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam.
SPAMfighter has removed 3127 of my spam emails to date.
Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len

The Professional version does not have this message
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20110711/f5c4cb03/attachment.html>