A brief history & timeline of events

1979 North Simcoe municipalities start a search for dumping capacity – either an expansion of their Pauze site (which turned out to be leaching toxics, as it still is) or a new dump.

1986 North Simcoe’s environmental assessment (EA) selects Site 41, a 20.7-hectare parcel in Tiny Township.

1989 After hearings, a Joint Board (a combination of the Environmental Review Tribunal and Ontario Municipal Board) rejects Site 41, finding bias in an “irredeemably deficient” selection process.

1990 Liberal Premier David Peterson’s cabinet intervenes because of the alleged urgent need for a new dump, issuing an Order in Council that rescinds the Joint Board decision and sets parameters to ensure reconsideration of Site 41.

1990-1993 Additional sites are reviewed, but Site 41 remains North Simcoe’s preferred choice.

1993 Joint Board hearings run from May, 1993 to November, 1994.

1995 Joint Board Chair Robert D. Eisen issues a decision expressing discomfort with the Order in Council that “nullified” the Board’s earlier criticisms. Eisen approves Site 41, with comment and specific conditions.

1995 The North Simcoe Waste Management Association disbands and Simcoe County takes over the dump project.

1998 The Ontario Ministry of the Environment issues a provisional Certificate of Approval (C of A), which includes a requirement for a Community Monitoring Committee to “serve as a focal point for the collection, review and exchange of information relevant to both County and local concerns in connection with the landfill site.” The County starts assembling land.

2001 Two applications for review of the C of A based on groundwater concerns are dismissed by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

2003 County consultant Jagger Hims uses Modflow, an open source software free for use in the public interest, to produce a hydrogeological and geotechnical evaluation of the site.

2004 In his 2003-2004 report, Gord Miller, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, expresses concern over the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s actions regarding Site 41.

2006 The Ontario Ministry of the Environment issues final approval for the Site 41 dump.

2007
-June, Simcoe County Council approves preliminary work on Site 41. The Community Monitoring Committee requests the calibration and input data for the computer model used by consultant Jagger Hims to prove the site is safe. Simcoe County refuses.
-September, CMC member Stephen Ogden files a Freedom of Information request.

2008
-November, Mohawk elder Danny Beaton and Stephen Ogden and a few others, including Dr. John Bacher, Dr. Hugh Anson-Cartwright walk from Site 41 to Queen’s Park to raise awareness of the water issue.
-December, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment issues a Permit To Take Water, allowing construction to start.

2009 Cell construction begins.
-May 8, a Walk for Water attracts 600 people and the Anishinabe Kweag, the women of Beausoleil First Nation, set up a protest camp opposite Site 41.
-May 13, the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner orders the County to obtain the computer modelling data and make a decision about its release to Ogden.
-July 4, 700 people attend a second Walk for Water.
-July 6, the Anishinabe Kweag close down construction at Site 41.
-July 18, the Information and Privacy Commissioners warns Simcoe County about its failure to comply with the May 13 order.
-July 23, Simcoe County obtains an interim injunction against the blockade.
-July 25, 2,500 attend the Rally for a Moratorium in Perkinsfield.
-August 25, Simcoe County councillors vote 22-10 in favour of a one-year moratorium on construction to allow for public review.
-September 22, Simcoe County councillors vote 26-3 in favour of discontinuing construction and development of Dump Site 41. After a ceremony at the protest camp, the sacred fire is allowed to go out. Victory celebrations are tempered by the fact that councillors balk (by a vote of 22-7) at giving up the Certificate of Approval that permits the landfill operation.
-November 19, at Queens Park in Toronto, members of the Ontario legislature vote 44-11 to give second reading to Bill 32, a Private Member’s Bill put forward by Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop, that would revoke the C of A. The bill still has to get third reading to be enacted.
-December 3, charges of mischief or mischief and intimidation, laid during the summer protest, are stayed or dropped against 18 SDS41 protesters.

2010
-March 4, Premier Dalton McGuinty prorogues Legislature and Bill 32 dies on the order paper.
-May 25, Simcoe County Council votes to request revocation of the Site 41 certificate of approval and rezone the property agricultural, with a covenant on title that it not be used for waste management purposes. Within hours, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment revokes the C of A.
THE WATER IS PROTECTED!