Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North): I rise today to inform the House about a successful groundwater protection event I organized in my riding on Friday, December 12. In spite of stormy winter conditions, over 200 people gathered at the farm of Roy Nahuis to help me launch a petition on landfill site 41 in the township of Tiny. The petition asks Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky to place a moratorium on the development of site 41 until the water source protection legislation that she recently promised is implemented in our province.

Initially I had requested the county of Simcoe to grant me access to site 41 to look at the test well. I regret that the county denied me such access, but I, like the people who braved the weather to attend the event, was determined to make it happen, to give site 41 the profile it needs to get the minister's and the ministry's attention.

The media have played a vital, pivotal role in helping us deliver the message locally and to Queen's Park that site 41 could be subject to groundwater contamination if it proceeds as planned. The overflowing wells on the property of site 41, which have been captured on video, paint a telling picture and serve as a fair warning of potential groundwater contamination at site 41.

I will make sure that Minister Dombrowsky receives a copy of this video so she can see for herself the imminent danger of developing site 41 as a landfill.