School by Taro dump gets funding

Premier Doug Ford’s government is giving Hamilton’s public school board $16.7 million to build a 650student elementary school that will be almost across the street from upper Stoney Creek’s Taro industrial dump. Flamborough-Glanbrook Tory MPP Donna Skelly, who represents the area, joined Education Minister Stephen Lecce to announce the funding for the Nash neighbourhood school, to also include 49 child-care spaces, at a virtual news conference on Monday.

Asked about building a school so close to a dump expected to operate for another 15 years, Skelly said site selections go through “a rigorous process” and she’s comfortable students and toddlers will be safe from traffic, dust and other impacts.

She said the choice of locations was made with input from stakeholders, residents, students and families.

“I would say we have done our due diligence and I don’t have any concerns,” Skelly said. “A site selection isn’t done in a silo. All of these concerns are raised and they are taken into consideration before approval is given.”

Lecce said the Nash school will relieve enrolment pressures from housing growth in the area and replace Tapleytown school, bringing needed modernization.

The school’s site, a 2.4-hectare lot by the northwest corner of Green Mountain Road and First Road West, is next to Heritage Green Community Sport Park but also kitty-corner to the dump, licensed for solid, nonhazardous waste.

Recently acquired by GFL Environmental, the dump received provincial approval in October 2019 to increase its waste capacity by nearly 60 per cent — to 10.18 million cubic metres — and raise the maximum fill height by 2.5 metres, to 21 metres above street level.

School board chair Dawn Danko, who also attended the news conference, said the school site was identified in the neighbourhood plan and concerns about the proximity to the dump were part of discussions when submitting it for funding.

“But we did receive information that a lot of the concerns can be mitigated, and this will in fact be a neighbourhood development, not just a school,” she said.

(MPP Donna Skelly) said the choice of locations was made with input from stakeholders, residents, students and families