Urgent Action Required At The Former GM Site In St. Catharines To Protect Public Health And The Environment

The contaminated mess that once was a General Motors plant off Ontario Street in St. Catharines. file photo by Doug Draper

“Our community needs transparency to remain a priority. The legacy of contamination at this site is severe and residents deserve to know that their government is actively working to keep them safe.”                                                    from a letter that St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens sent this past October 27^th to Ontario’s Ford Government’s Minister for Environment, Conservation and Parks, Todd McCarthy

A Letter to the Ford Government from St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens

Posted November 3^rd, 2025 on Niagara At Large

A Brief Introductory Comment on the  sending of  the Letter by Doug Draper at Niagara At Large – It is a disgrace that midway through the third decade of the 21^st Century and 55 years after the first Earth Day, that a letter like this one, from a provincial MPP, has to be sent to a ministry responsible for environmental protection in Ontario.

The contaminated site is located next to neighbourhoods in St. Catharines.

It is totally unacceptable that, in so many words, an elected representative has to remind this ministry what its mandate is and who it is working for and paying its salaries.

At a time when we are mourning the passing of long-time political representative Jim Bradley, who served as Minister of Environment for Ontario through the last half of the 1980s, this kind of irresponsible conduct on the part of ministry staff would never have been tolerated. In fact, members of the public would have been invited to regular meetings updating them on the cleanup progress being made.

How far this ministry has fallen since.

Now here is St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens’ recent letter to Ontario’s Environment Minister, Todd McCarthy –

Dear Minister McCarthy,

St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens

I am writing on behalf of concerned residents, community groups and environmental advocates in and around the city of St. Catharines, to raise serious questions and demand clear responses regarding the status, oversight and remediation of the former General Motors manufacturing site (Ontario Street property).

In July 2021, Peter’s Environmental, a company that performs clean-up and remediation activities, was hired to perform these services along with continual general maintenance of the ‘treatment system’ — a system that was built to control toxic run-off from leaching into nearby soil and waterways including Twelve Mile Creek.

Earlier this year however, Peter’s Environmental placed a lien on the GM property citing over $1.7 million in unpaid work. It is unclear if anyone has continued maintaining the toxic runoff system since the lien was placed — leaving residents seriously concerned if the system is being monitored at all.

The last documented sampling was completed by the Ministry on March 20, 2022, and results confirmed that PCB’s onsite and in the discharge offsite to the St. Catharines sewer system, was “still significantly higher” than the Provincial Water Quality Objectives (PWQO) guideline and threshold.

Given the severity of this situation and the ‘unknown’ having potentially dangerous consequences for residents in and around the GM site, I respectfully ask that the Ministry provide answers and commit to action in the following areas:

1. Monitoring and inspection o Has the MECP conducted inspections of the filtration/runoff-control system at the former GM site since the lien by Peters Environmental was filed? o Is the system fully operational, maintained, and functioning as intended (i.e., intercepting contaminated water, treating it, and preventing leaching into soil and nearby waterways such as Twelve Mile Creek)? o If not, what immediate steps will MECP take to assess the condition of the system and ensure remediation is carried out?
2. Risk to public health and the environment o What is the current assessment of risk to residents, especially those living nearby or downstream of the former GM site, given the high levels of contamination that were still documented back in 2022? o If monitoring is incomplete, how is the Ministry ensuring that residents are not being placed at unacceptable risk?
3. Site cleanup and accountability o What is the detailed status of the cleanup plan for the former GM property: who is responsible, what steps remain, what timeline is in place? o How is MECP enforcing obligations to remediate the site and maintain all required systems? o Will MECP release or make publicly available the key documents, including monitoring data, inspection reports, and the status of the filtration system?
4. Transparency and community updates o Will MECP commit to regular public updates on the status of the site? o Will MECP consider hosting community information sessions (in St. Catharines or online) to allow residents to ask questions and receive updates from Ministry staff?

Our community needs transparency to remain a priority. The legacy of contamination at this site is severe and residents deserve to know that their government is actively working to keep them safe.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this serious matter. I look forward to your prompt reply and to seeing concrete commitments from your Ministry.

• Sincerely, Jennie Stevens, MPP for St. Catharines

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