Ontario Land Tribunal
Tribunal ontarien de l’aménagement du territoire
ISSUE DATE: December 08, 2022
CASE NO(S).: OLT-22-004473
PROCEEDING COMMENCED UNDER section 140(1) of the Environmental Protection Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.36
Appellant: 2057183 Ontario Limited
Appellant: Harry Westendorp
Appellant: Pamela Poulin
Respondent: Director, Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
Subject: Order of the Director
Description: Various works ordered including not to burn any waste wood materials at the site, the remove of all waste materials, and the installation of two monitoring wells in two different areas of the Site
Reference Number: 1-131767953
Property Address: 7811 County Road 6
Municipality/Upper Tier: Elizabethtown-Kitley, Leeds and Grenville
OLT Case No.: OLT-22-004473
OLT Lead Case No.: OLT-22-004473
OLT Case Name: Poulin v. Ontario (MECP)
Heard: November 22, 2022 by telephone conference call
APPEARANCES:
Parties
Counsel
2057183 Ontario Limited
J. Douglas Grenkie
Harry Westendorp and
Pamela Poulin
Director, Ministry of the Environment,
Isabelle O’Connor
Conservation and Parks
Peter Hillson (student-at-law)
Catalina Karam (student-at-law)
MEMORANDUM OF ORAL DECISION DELIVERED BY S. BRAUN ON NOVEMBER 22, 2022 AND ORDER OF THE TRIBUNAL
1On September 27, 2022, Trevor Dagilis, Director of the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (“MECP”) issued Director’s Order #1-131767953 (“Director’s Order”) pursuant to s. 157.3 of the Environmental Protection Act (“EPA”) to 2057183 Ontario Limited, Harry Westendorp and Pamela Poulin (“Appellants”) in relation to the property located at 7811 County Road #6 in Elizabethtown-Kitley (“site”).
2The Director’s Order sets out 11 items requiring the Appellants to perform certain work and/or refrain from certain activities, including Item No. 1, which indicates there is to be no burning of materials at the site. The Appellants sought a stay of the Director’s Order pending the disposition of the appeal and the Tribunal scheduled a telephone conference call (“TCC”) to set a date for the hearing of the stay motion and discuss procedural details in relation thereto.
3Prior to the TCC, no persons requested status in the proceeding and no persons appeared at the TCC seeking status. Mr. Dagilis, Issuing Director for MECP and Chris Raffael, Senior Environmental Officer, MECP attended to observe the hearing event.
4At the TCC, counsel for the Director indicated an intention to contest the stay motion and the Parties accordingly requested a 1-day video hearing for same. Counsel for the Appellant clarified that the Tribunal was not being asked to grant relief in the form of an interim stay pending the disposition of the stay motion. At the request of the Parties, the Tribunal scheduled the motion to be heard by video hearing on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 beginning at 10 a.m. as follows:
GoTo Meeting: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/719383509
Audio-only telephone line: Toll-Free 1-888-299-1889 or +1 (647) 497-9373
Access Code: 719-383-509
5Parties are asked to log into the video hearing at least 15 minutes before the start of the event to test their video and audio connections.
6Parties are asked to access and set up the application well in advance of the event to avoid unnecessary delay. The desktop application can be downloaded at GoToMeeting or a web application is available: https://app.gotomeeting.com/home.html.
7Persons who experience technical difficulties accessing the GoToMeeting application or who only wish to listen to the event can connect to the event by calling into an audio-only telephone line with the Access Code as indicated above.
8Individuals are directed to connect to the event on the assigned date at the correct time. It is the responsibility of the persons participating in the video hearing to ensure that they are properly connected to the event at the correct time. Questions prior to the hearing event may be directed to the Tribunal’s Case Coordinator having carriage of this case.
9The Parties discussed and agreed to a schedule of deadlines for the exchange and filing of motion materials, which the Tribunal approved as follows:
Notice of motion and moving party’s supporting materials/affidavits
December 12, 2022
Notice of response to motion and responding party’s supporting materials/affidavits
December 20, 2022
Reply (if any) by moving party
January 5, 2023
Factum (including authorities) of moving party
February 3, 2023
Factum (including authorities) of responding party
February 17, 2023
10The Parties agreed that, if necessary, cross examinations on affidavits and the transcription of same will be arranged privately and will be held between January 9-11, 2023.
11The Tribunal inquired as to whether there were any other matters to be addressed which might assist in the fair, just and expeditious resolution of this matter. In response, the Parties briefly discussed the number and professional disciplines of the witnesses they anticipate calling for a hearing of the merits and requested, for the sake of efficiency, that a 5-day hearing be scheduled. The Parties are currently working on a Procedural Order (“PO”) and Issues List (“IL”) but have not yet finalized same. They agreed to contact the Case Coordinator to request the scheduling of a subsequent TCC, at which time they will present a finalized PO and IL for the Tribunal’s review and approval.
12At the request of the Parties, the Tribunal scheduled a 5-day video hearing of beginning on Monday, May 15, 2023 at 10 a.m. as follows:
GoTo Meeting: https://meet.goto.com/558205565
Audio-only telephone line: Toll-Free 1-888-299-1889 or +1 (647) 497-9373
Access Code: 558-205-565
13The attendance instructions of paragraphs [5] through [8] above also apply here.
14There will be no further notice and this Member is not seized but may be available for case management, should scheduling permit.
15It is so ordered.
“S. Braun”
S. braun
MEMBER
Ontario Land Tribunal
Website: www.olt.gov.on.ca Telephone: 416-212-6349 Toll Free: 1-866-448-2248
The Conservation Review Board, the Environmental Review Tribunal, the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal and the Mining and Lands Tribunal are amalgamated and continued as the Ontario Land Tribunal (“Tribunal”). Any reference to the preceding tribunals or the former Ontario Municipal Board is deemed to be a reference to the Tribunal.