In October 2022, the County commenced a legal action against Picton Terminals. It sought a ruling on a key issue: whether it had the authority to enforce its zoning bylaws and prevent the port from becoming an international hub for storing and shipping containers. 

A 2018 Ontario Superior Court judgment recognized the grandfathered status of shipping bulk cargo, like steel and rock, at the port on Picton Bay — and said there was no provision for the transshipment or storage of containers on its properties. 

Picton Terminals, however, says ports are federally regulated, and therefore municipal zoning bylaws do not apply.  

Critics say those arguments would not stand up in court. Certainly, the Ontario Superior Court never once suggested the Terminals was not subject to local zoning in its 2018 judgment. The opposite, in fact: the judgment restricts the activities of the Terminals to grandfathered municipal zoning privileges. 

Nonetheless, the County’s own lawyers have apparently advised that a court case would be costly, perhaps about $400,000, and that the County could lose. What they may have said in favour of a case we do not know. All discussion has been behind closed doors.

In June, councillors voted 7-6 to settle out of court rather than pursue the case against the Terminals. The details of this settlement were made public last week. The key terms are these: 

—The County agrees to request an MZO, a Ministerial Zoning Order, from the Minister for Municipal Affairs and Housing, Paul Callandra. An MZO allows a developer to bypass local zoning, environmental regulations, and planning procedures and just…go ahead. In 2020, the government passed a bill that denied local Conservation Authorities their power to veto an MZO. That caused a ruckus. In 2021, another bill allowed MZOs to circumvent the Provincial Policy Statement.

The Provincial Government claims an MZO is granted to expedite the building of housing and long-term care homes. As the Terminals is likely not planning to build a long-term care home, one wonders why it thinks this request will be successful. 

Perhaps it knows something we do not. 

The Ford government has been accused of corruption in its use of MZOs. The Auditor General of Ontario — the same office that found certain developers had attempted to profit from insider knowledge of the government’s plan to dismantle parts of the Greenbelt — is investigating the government’s use of MZOs to help developers with which it is particularly cozy expedite their plans. But that is a topic for another day. Back to the agreement with Picton Terminals:

—If an MZO is granted, the Terminals will be zoned MX-Industrial-Extractive across the land it owns now, and any neighbouring parcels it can acquire by the end of September. 

—It will be allowed to continue to use its site as a rock quarry, as well as to transship cargo and containers, to store containers on up to 80% of the property, and to stack them up to 117 metres high. 

The agreement, which Picton Terminals signed back almost immediately, allows container shipping and at least doubles the size of the property on the limestone cliffs overlooking the Bay. 

In short, it could not have offered more to the Doornekamps if they had written it themselves.

In return for all this, the Terminals agrees that shipped goods will not include garbage, nuclear waste, or some toxic substances.

Activity will go on as usual, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, when a ship is in port. 

A telephone number will be posted on the gates should you wish to call and complain. 

A committee, with a rep from the Terminals, a rep from Council, and three residents, will meet three times a year to review those complaints. 

There is no mechanism to remedy complaints. That would mostly likely require a lawsuit. Bringing us right back where we are today.

Finally, the Terminals will stop letting its trucks charge up and down poor White Chapel Road. Instead, once it acquires the bordering properties, whose owners may well be desperate to get away, it will build a dedicated access road from Highway 49. 

And that’s it. Otherwise, all regulation will be left up to the Ministry of the Environment and Quinte Conservation. Just as it is now. 

It looks, in other words, as though seven councillors,seeking to relieve the municipality of the hassle of trying to constrain an aggressive, would-be international shipping hub and rock quarry, and saddled with lawyers unwilling, for whatever reason, to prepare a court case, have chosen the path of absolute least resistance. 

They have sold the farm. 

But I caution you. Last week, I was accused of bias in my reporting on this subject by the County’s Integrity Commissioner, Robert Swayze. I have no idea why. It is not his job to supervise the local newspapers.

Mr. Swayze confronted me with an email I had sent to Chief Maracle in June, right after Council voted to settle, asking for an interview. In my note, I suggested that the well-known opposition of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte to Picton Terminals’ expansion plans would be a strong counter-force in the conversation around a settlement. 

Mr. Swayze asked me to agree that a “professional journalist” should not send requests that demonstrate an obvious bias in favour of one side of a debate over another.

Journalists need to work hard to get all sides of a story, and particularly the facts of the matter at hand. That is hard to do when everything happens in secret, behind closed doors. That is why the Gazette advocated for the release of the terms of this settlement to the public, in addition to seeking interviews with all parties involved. 

Picton Terminals does not answer my calls or emails. Councillors are not able to speak about anything that happens in a closed session. Chief Maracle opted to keep his thoughts to himself for the time being. It does make balanced reporting a challenge. 

To that end, let me now implore those councillors who voted to send this offer of settlement to Picton Terminals to please inform us of their arguments. 

Because I agree with Mr. Swayze. I am not doing a very good job on that front. I cannot find a single one.