By Kate Harries WaterWatch
The secretive nature of Simcoe County Council’s decision-making process was highlighted Thursday when members of the Clearview Community Coalition made a deputation to Simcoe County Council.
At issue was an agreement to close a portion of County Road 91, turning it into a haul route for a new quarry being proposed by Walker Aggregates at the top of the Niagara Escarpment west of Duntroon, in the headwaters of the Batteaux Creek, Pretty and Beaver rivers.
Exactly what the agreement says is not known as CCC members had not been allowed to review it.
But its effect has impacts for the entire county, Clearview resident Bruce Gillham told County Council (he was not allowed to tell councillors of the CCC's environmental concerns and was told his deputation should deal only with the road issue.)
County Road 91, cutting through the brow of the Escarpment, is no ordinary road, he said. “It is one of the most spectacular scenic drives in Ontario. It would be unfortunate to lose that view but on a more practical level closing the road would reduce the east/west service provided by the network of County roads.”

Apart from safety and cost issues, the county’s approval of the road agreement would have the effect of facilitating one of the largest quarries in the province, in terms of annual rate of extraction, Gillham said. That’s why it’s so astounding that the deal – involving Simcoe County, Clearview Township and Walker Aggregates – was made in secret and the agreement has not been made public. 
In a letter to County Council, Norm Wingrove of the Blue Mountain Watershed Trust Foundation notes that the quarry application is being opposed before the Office of Consolidated Hearings by the Niagara Escarpment Commission as well as the CCC and the Trust.
Wingrove decried the process that Simcoe County has been involved in. “We believe it is quite unprecedented that crucial agreements which may influence the approval of this quarry are being conducted without public knowledge let alone pubic input,” he wrote.
Former Ontario environment minister Ruth Grier also wrote to Warden Patterson and county councillors to complain about the process.
“There has been no public consultation about this road proposal at either the Township or the County level,” Grier wrote.   
“The Clearview Community Coalition has been given an opportunity to appear before County Council on February 25, 2010 but has not been allowed to see the agreement.
“As a municipal councillor for fifteen years and an MPP for ten I have never before encountered this kind of procedure, especially when the subject matter is not only the disposition of a public road but also its removal from the County’s primary arterial road system.”
After hearing from the CCC, councillors went into closed session. They emerged to approve the agreement with Clearview and Walker and transfer the required portion of County Road 91. There was no public debate.
For more information http://clearviewcommunitycoalition.com/