By: Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice
Despite the fact approvals are still needed, York1 is looking to hire workers at the Dresden landfill site.
This came to light just days after the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada turned down a request from Dresden Citizens Against Reckless Environmental Disposal (C.A.R.E.D.) to review the project under the Impact Assessment Act. The Municipality of Chatham-Kent and Walpole Island First Nation members also signed onto the request.
York1’s Help Wanted ads on Indeed have raised concerns among officials.
“To my knowledge they (York1) have not received any approvals and putting ads out is premature at best,” said Rick Lindgren, staff lawyer with the Canadian Environmental Law Association.
According to Lindgren, who serves as co-counsel for Dresden C.A.R.E.D, approvals from the province and Chatham-Kent are needed in order for the landfill expansion to legally go ahead.
In a telephone interview, Lindgren said York1 officials disagree with that opinion, noting it will be “interesting to see how this plays out.
“It’s wait and see,” Lindgren explained. “I hope everyone has their ears to the ground to be ready and let us know if anything happens.”
Chatham-Kent deputy chief administrative officer Dave Taylor said he had been made aware of the want ads and the municipality is looking into it. Chatham-Kent is on record as being firmly opposed to the project.
He also stressed “it’s important to remember that York1 does have some existing approvals stemming from historical approvals.”
However, Taylor pointed out that the municipality “has been really consistent” with the fact York1 needs further provincial and municipal approvals, including land-use approvals, and York1 has “not sought those.”
Since the project came to light early in 2024, opposition has been fierce, coming from a wide array of environmental agencies, opposition leaders and municipal governments – including Dawn-Euphemia, Lambton County and Dresden Together.
A comprehensive environmental assessment had been placed on the development by former Environment Minister Andrea Khanjin in 2024. But in June 2025, the EA was removed by the provincial approval of Bill 5 – Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act – which empowers the government to create special economic zones.
GTA-based York1 has plans to build a regenerative recycling facility at the Irish School Road site a kilometre from the community, as well as a soil washing and leachate ponding system, while expanding the dormant landfill capacity to accept non-hazardous construction and demolition waste.
Originally slated to run 24-7 with an estimated 700 trucks travelling to the site each day, York1 has scaled the project back to six days a week. It’s unknown how many trucks are expected daily or what route the trucks will take to access the site.
When The Voice reached out last week to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) with a list of detailed questions about the York1 project, the paper received a three-paragraph answer.
In an email response from Alexandru Cioban, deputy director of Issues Management, Legislative Affairs and Press Secretary for MECP Minister Todd McCarthy, wrote that the York1 waste project is “an expansion of an existing, active landfill with waste permissions already in place – and would not normally require a new environmental assessment that would take six or more years to complete.
“This makes it a site that can mobilize quickly to expand Ontario’s internal waste management capacity, ensuring long-term stability while reducing reliance on international systems,” Cioban wrote. “We have been clear, the project will still undergo extensive environmental processes and remain subject to strong provincial oversight and other regulatory requirements, including Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECA) under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA).”
However, for the grassroots groups, the battle goes on.
“Our fight continues alongside Walpole, Chatham-Kent and Dawn-Euphemia to oppose this project in all its forms,” Dresden C.A.R.E.D chair Stefan Premdas said late last week.
Premdas pointed out that while IAAC president Terrence Hubbard turned down the request for an assessment, he acknowledged the project may cause adverse effects to areas under federal responsibility, listing fisheries, migratory birds, species at risk and First Nations people.
In another development last week, the Lambton Kent District School Board is on record as being officially opposed to the Dresden expansion. At its Oct. 28 meeting, the board reviewed a case coming out of Stoney Creek, Ont., where the Ministry of Education stopped the construction of a school because it was too close to a landfill.
Board trustee Angie Mills-Richards, who serves Dresden students and also owns farmland adjacent to the landfill site, said she hopes the Minister of Education will listen.
“Our schools are closer than the Stoney Creek landfill was to a proposed new school,” she said, noting Dresden students deserve the same consideration.
“The majority of the community remains opposed to the landfill,” Mills-Richards said. “Our children deserve our protection as does our farmland and the food processing industry in town.”
LKDSB chair Kelley Robertson has been directed to send a letter to Minister of Education Paul Calandra requesting the ministry’s help in stopping the development.
