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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=holt@uwaterloo.ca href="mailto:holt@uwaterloo.ca">holt</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=karrenwallace@sympatico.ca
href="mailto:karrenwallace@sympatico.ca >> Karren Wallace">karrenwallace@sympatico.ca
>> Karren Wallace</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, November 16, 2009 9:58 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Forget Paving Paradise --- Make Malancthon into a big
hole</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>To Gravel Watch Ontario members:<BR><BR>Megaquarry in the works
---<BR><BR>There is quite a good and interesting article and discussion on the
proposed megaquarry in Malancthon (Dufferin county, near Shelbourne). A
multinational, Highland Companies seems set to make this farming area into a big
hole, a multi-thousand acre hole. Will the Province of Ontario, with its
policy that gravel trumps all, help Highland carry this
out?<BR><BR> Ric Holt<BR>= == = = = = = =
=<BR>See the article: <A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://torontoist.com/2009/11/forget_paving_paradise_lets_just_dig_a_giant_hole_in_it.php">http://torontoist.com/2009/11/forget_paving_paradise_lets_just_dig_a_giant_hole_in_it.php</A>
<BR>== = = = = = = = =<BR><BR>
<H1 class="asset-name entry-title" id=page-title><SMALL>Forget Paving Paradise,
Let's Just Dig a Giant Hole in It</SMALL></H1><IMG alt=""
src="cid:695D1D31CC4C4C0591A423C8AD94825B@ayd1724"><BR><BR>
<P>The farmland of Dufferin County looks exactly the way you'd imagine: softly
rolling hillsides, the landscape dotted with old clapboard barns and quaint
country houses, wooden fences neatly marking off the lots. Nestled in this
terrain, about an hour and half northwest of Toronto, is the township of <A
href="http://melancthontownship.ca/">Melancthon</A> (population 2,895), a small
community that has been an agricultural centre for many generations' worth of
farmers. The soil in this region—Honeywood silt loam—is said by local farmers to
be unique in southern Ontario, and is particularly, ideally well-suited for
growing potatoes. </P>
<P>This soil, which both holds water very well and drains very well, happens to
sit on top of another valuable commodity—limestone. Under the farmland of
Melancthon is a rich deposit of Amabel dolomitic limestone, which is prized for
its strength and durability. Limestone is what's called an aggregate resource;
according to Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), aggregate resources
"include any combination of sand, gravel, or crushed stone in a natural or
processed state. Aggregates are used in the construction of highways, dams, and
airports, as well as residential, industrial and institutional buildings." The
limestone in Melancthon is, by all accounts, both plentiful and of excellent
quality, and would be in high demand if brought to market. </P>
<P>Since 2006 a corporate entity called <A
href="http://www.highlandcompanies.ca/index.php/site/">The Highland
Companies</A>, which describes itself as "the operating and investment vehicle
for a group of private investors based in Canada and the United States," has
been buying up parcels of land in Melancthon, purchasing it from local farmers
and putting together a consolidated potato farming operation. The company's
intentions, however, are more complicated. Sometime in the next few months The
Highland Companies will be filing an application to open <A
href="http://www.highlandcompanies.ca/index.php/companies/aggregates/">a 2,400
acre limestone quarry</A> in Melancthon, hoping to turn a significant portion of
its farmland (it owns approximately 7,500 acres in Melancthon) over to aggregate
extraction.<BR></P>
<P>etc etc etc See the article: <A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://torontoist.com/2009/11/forget_paving_paradise_lets_just_dig_a_giant_hole_in_it.php">http://torontoist.com/2009/11/forget_paving_paradise_lets_just_dig_a_giant_hole_in_it.php</A>
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