Did you know that Picton Terminals is not only a port, but a rock quarry? I didn’t. I’m not sure who does know. But it seems to be an open secret.

Legally — meaning, according to a permit issued by Quinte Conservation and an approval letter from the Ministry of Natural Resources — the Terminals has been allowed, since 2015, to excavate rock in order to upgrade the clifftop property on White Chapel Road.

To build a shipping road and reinforce a steel pier, it was allowed to excavate 150,000 MT of aggregate (stone) over five years. The approval was to expire in 2019.

Because the primary purpose of the quarrying was not to produce or sell rock or aggregate, but to upgrade the port, the Ministry said a quarry licence was not required. “As long as the excavation adheres to the parameters outlined and the applicable permit from Quinte Conservation, it is the Ministry’s position that this project does not require an Aggregate Licence under the Aggregate Resources Act,” it wrote.

But, the letter notes, “if the excavation exceeds the nature and extent of what is outlined in the submitted documentation, the MNRF may determine that the ‘primary purpose’ of the excavation was for aggregate and not for the proposed upgrades. If this occurs, the operation could be considered a quarry and therefore subject to the Aggregate Resources Act.”

It was the thin edge of the wedge. This limited approval was all the Terminals’ owner, Ben Doornekamp, required to open a full-fledged rock quarry. In 2017, the Picton Terminals timeline announced a breakthrough in its ability to load and unload rock at speed: a powerful new conveyor could move 1000 MT every hour. “A 16,000 MT ore carrier was loaded in approximately 10 hours,” its website notes.

A series of marine construction contracts followed, beginning with an $18 million deal to build a new road for the Amherst Island Wind Farm. Forget that Quinte Conservation permit for a measly 150,000 MT over five years. The Terminals supplied 500,000 MT of aggregate for this project over 18 months.

It was a win-win situation. As it was not a licensed quarry, it did not have to pay any of the applicable fees. The rock was all deemed surplus to construction, evading current royalties of 60 cents per tonne, or $300,000.

Other contracts poured in. Waterfront Toronto paid $12 million for aggregate for its Cherry Street Lakefill Project. In 2019, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority contracted to pay Doornekamp Construction over $30 million to build a combined 800 meters of breakwaters at Ashbridges Bay, part of a three-year, $97 million project. Again, the Doornekamps billed the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of stone required as “surplus aggregate from the redevelopment of Picton Terminals.”

Meanwhile, in 2018, the approval-happy MNRF issued another letter, extending the Terminals’ quarrying-but-not-quarrying permit to 2023. A Ministry of the Environment directive to create covered dry storage structures for cargo and stormwater runoff had created another opportunity to quarry yet more limestone out of the 90-foot rock cliff at Picton Terminals.

The MNRF again permitted the quarrying of rock “for the sole purpose of constructing structures associated with upgrades to the shipping terminal,” but noted that “the excavation will only occur for a limited period of five (5) years while construction of the structure is completed.” The approval came, again, with a warning that a quarry licence would be required if rock was quarried for any other purpose than building stormwater works and a covered dry storage bin for MECP.

More projects came along. An April 2020 PT Times newsletter crows: “the PT Team is supplying surplus aggregate in support of the Wolfe Island Ferry Dock construction….Each barge carries approximately 2500 MT of surplus aggregate….There will be approximately 50 barge loads this autumn.”

Another 125,000 MT of rock shipped out of White Chapel Road.Almost the entire five-year Conservation Authority allowance — on one project. And $75,000 in royalties? Not applicable.

In April 2023, the Terminals claimed 85,000 MT of aggregate had been barged across Lake Ontario in 2022 — and would be again in 2023. The trade magazine Dry Cargo reports: “With its Liebherr LH 420 crane’s capacity of 125 metric tonnes, fleet of two 250ft flat deck barges, three hopper barges and tugs Amy Lynn D (46-tonne Bollard Pull) and Sheri Lynn S (16-tonne BP), the port is well equipped and positioned to support heavy lift, project cargoes and marine construction.”

Quarried stone from White Chapel Road has reinforced the Toronto shoreline from Cherry Street to Gibraltar Point, and from Ashbridges Bay to Port Union, as well as the Amherst Island Ferry Dock, the Wolfe Island Ferry Dock, and the Kingston Airport Runway Extension.

A “mobile rock crushing plant” creates everything from sand to concrete stone. In spring, blasting goes on almost every week for months. Picton Terminals’ latest contract, another $1.7 million for the Ashbridges Bay Landform Project, was awarded in January 2024, despite that second MNRF approval having expired in September 2023. Approvals? Licenses? Permits? Royalties? Taxes? Fees? Huh?

To be fair, the County has tried to take some action. In May 2021, its lawyers sent a letter to the MNRF, demanding to know what exactly was going on. Nothing was being constructed at the Terminals, or, at least, nothing for which a municipal permit had been issued. The new roadway, the subject of the very first permit, had been long since completed. And yet blasting, quarrying, crushing, loading, and shipping was ongoing.

“We ask that the MNRF issue an Order under the Act prohibiting further excavation unless and until a Quarry licence is obtained,” they wrote.

The MNRF, however, continues to insist that the rock Picton Terminals quarries and sells in vast quantities is all still “incidental” to the work of upgrading the Port. No licence required.

Those six or so years of quarrying contracts amount to at least $65 million.

This is called turning a blind eye. The question is why.