THE HUNDER PIT FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

Today's Elmira Independent, appropriately, after covering the concerns and opinions of many local residents has interviewed Bob and Kyle Hunsberger, the proponents of the Hunder Pit beside Conestogo and very near to Winterbourne. As to be expected they have a significantly different view of the proposed gravel pit and their opinions while different from both mine and their neighbours are not "bad" or "evil". They explain their position well and what surprises me is the claim that Councillor Bonnie Bryant and Mayor Todd Cowan have as yet not met with them. I would fully expect that situation to be remedied soon. What also concerns me is the statement that under Ministry of Natural Resources regulations, bush and woodlots can be destroyed and excavated for gravel. If correct then I find that an indictment of the MNR and suggest they should be renamed from Ministry of Natural Resources to the Ministry of Exploitation of Natural Resources.
My overall impression of this and similar situations is that clearly our planning rules and regulations favour industry, enterprise, developers and economic exploitation, with ordinary citizens and residents at the bottom of a very big pile. The Hunsbergers point out that the current residential subdivision used to be farmland. It was rezoned to residential and now the neighbouring farmland is being rezoned for aggregate extraction. Was the original error in permitting a developer to put a residential subdivision here or is the error in now allowing a gravel pit beside a residential subdivision? Something is very wrong with both the local planning rules as well as with the provincial resource development legislation.