Canada-U.S. trade war could spark an ‘immediate crisis’ in Ontario’s landfills [Video]

Doug Ford’s government is blaming U.S. tariffs for the expansion of a controversial landfill project in southwestern Ontario — but experts say the conflict should serve as a wake-up call that time is running out to find long-term solutions to the province’s rapidly-filling landfills.

Ford’s government has repeatedly raised the spectre of the U.S. President Donald Trump tariffing, or cutting off, garbage shipments to the U.S. as the rationale to reopen the York1 landfill site near Dresden, Ont.

While it’s unclear if Trump has made such a threat publicly, or privately, the province has depended on the U.S. to take millions of tonnes of its trash for decades. 

“It’s about being self-reliant when it comes to waste management and all matters economic,” Ontario’s Environment Minister Todd McCarthy said in question period recently while defending the York1 project.

Ontario sent one-third of its waste to three American states between 2006 and …