Adams Mine - Aftermath

Aftermath

In that fall's municipal elections, Adams Mine supporter Bill Enouy was elected mayor of Kirkland Lake.

In 2001, the Harris government attempted to engineer a campaign of opposition among the Western Ontario communities affected by the Michigan deal, which was seeing hundreds of truckloads of garbage passing on Highway 401 daily; the intent was to force the city of Toronto back into Rail Cycle North's proposal for a landfill using the Adams Mine. The provincial government's campaign included a letter from Michigan Governor John Engler which expressed his state's opposition to accepting Toronto's garbage and explicitly supported the Rail Cycle North proposal, despite the fact that this was perceived as being at odds with Engler's usual positions on waste management. Staffers in Engler's office eventually revealed that the letter had been written at Premier Harris' request.

From 2001 to 2003, Notre Development and the Rail Cycle North consortium continued to pursue avenues to revive the landfill proposal.

In 2003, the Ontario Liberal Party, led by Dalton McGuinty, won the provincial election and on April 5, 2004, provincial Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay and Minister of the Environment Leona Dombrowsky introduced legislation which revoked all certificates and permits related to the Adams Mine proposal. This had the effect of permanently killing the 1996 plan.

Charlie Angus, a local musician and author, was one of the community leaders who organized the campaign against the Adams Mine proposal. He subsequently ran for political office, and was elected to Parliament in the 2004 federal election.

Toronto continues to export its trash to Michigan, causing a great deal of controversy for southern Ontario and Michigan communities which endure the transport of waste through their communities. Critics continue to point out that Toronto's exporting plan avoids forcing the city and region to come to terms with the waste its citizens generate, however there appears to be little political will to reduce consumption and bring about a regional waste management strategy which will avoid the necessity to export to distant landfills.

The shipping of garbage to Michigan briefly became an issue in the United States presidential election, 2004 when John Kerry, on a campaign stop in Michigan, promised to ban the import of Canadian garbage if he was elected. In September, 2005, the Michigan state legislature voted almost unanimously against accepting Toronto's garbage.