Ontario backtracks on imposing landfills on municipalities as garbage crunch looms - Toronto Star

Environment Minister Todd McCarthy now says there won't be new landfills forced on communities that don't want them.

Toronto trucks its trash to the massive Green Lane landfill near London, above, which is expected to run out of space by 2034.

Facing pushback over his call for more landfills amid a new Trump tariff on exported trash, Ontario’s environment minister says the province won’t force communities to host them. 

“There is ... never going to be the imposition of a landfill on any municipality that doesn’t want it,” Todd McCarthy said Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he left the door open to forcing dumps and energy-from-waste incinerators on them. 

He noted Premier Doug Ford’s government hopes to convince local governments of the economic benefits of such facilities, such as jobs. 

McCarthy’s comments came as Ontario seeks proposals in the wake of a 50 per cent tariff on trash from U.S. President Donald Trump and a Michigan proposal to dramatically increase tipping fees on garbage transported to the state. 

The minister cited the need for “many more” landfills and incinerators because Ontario will run out of landfill capacity in 10 years — or less, because of the Trump tariff.

Under wide-ranging legislation tabled Tuesday as the Building Ontario Faster Act, 2026, the government would “streamline” approvals in changes that several environmental groups warned would gut Ontario’s 1993 Environmental Bill of Rights. 

“This really can only be seen as a direct attack on mechanisms designed to ensure transparency and accountability in decision-making by the province,” said Mark Winfield, co-chair of the Sustainable Energy Initiative at York University.

As Toronto’s landfill space risks running out by 2034, the city faces a controversial debate over turning to incineration.