This book is a case study of the role of the Ontario Municipal Board, the key planning tribunal in the province, in protecting agricultural land between 1975 and 1986. The study highlights the need for provincial and municipal governments to increase density in land use planning so that fewer people live on less land. As well, the concluding sections discuss the economic challenges facing farmers operating on the rural-urban fringe.

This volume provides the background and more recent updates related to one of the most controversial environmental court decisions in Ontario history, Lafarge v. Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal (2008). In 2004, Lafarge, a multi-national cement producer, applied to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) for air and waste approvals under the Ontario Environmental Protection Act (EPA) in order to burn "alternative fuels"(i.e. scrap tires, plastics, etc.) at its cement plant near Bath, Ontario. In late December 2006, two MOE Directors delivered their Christmas presents to the company...

In the past fifteen years, it has become evident that citizens and non-government organizations (NGOs) are facing increased financial and technical barriers to participating in environmental decision-making processes on approvals, planning, and assessments and hearing processes. In part this is due to the various effects of "downsizing," streamlining, and harmonization policies being implemented by all levels of government in Canada, the United States and other nations. In addition, there are greater demands on funding sources for all non-profit and volunteer-based organizations. Moreover,...

This book explains the rapid evolution of the Blue Box municipal recycling program in Ontario between 1982 and 1994 and its social and environmental costs. The origins of the Blue Box municipal recycling program in Ontario can partly be traced back to the early 1970s when concerns about litter problems were attracting the public's attention. In 1976, a law under the Environmental Protection Act was passed allowing the Ontario government to enact regulations banning non-refillable soft drink containers. However, the regulations banning non-refillables cans and new plastic PET bottles were...

This book provides a selection of documents from the lengthy fight about the infamous proposal to convert the Adams Mine - an open pit iron ore mine near Kirkland lake - into a mega dump for Toronto's garbage. The idea first was seriously proposed in 1989. In 1992, the Ontario government enacted the Waste Management Act, 1992 which was intended to ban waste export and promote local waste disposal in the Greater Toronto Area. By the late 1990s, the project had also been rejected by most of the municipal governments in Toronto, but was kept "alive" by a private sector promoter, Gord McGuinty...