U.S. Firm Employs NAFTA to Sue Canada over Failed Toronto Waste Plan

Date: January 29, 2007

Source: News Room

According to The Globe and Mail, Pennsylvania investor Vito G. Gallo plans to sue Canada for $355 million, alleging Ontario unfairly shut down a plan to have a mine serve as a landfill site for Toronto garbage. Gallo alleges the Ontario government's 2004 move to ban dumping at the Adams Mine site in Kirkland Lake was tantamount to expropriation.

He argues that Canada breached a NAFTA clause which allows investors in Canada, Mexico and the U.S to sue other NAFTA members for damages arising out of changes in law or regulation. His Ontario company owns and controls the Adams Mine property, a former open-pit iron ore mine that had been considered as a future destination for Toronto's waste.

Toronto decided to ship its waste to Michigan after looking for a replacement site in the late 1990s to take the place of its Keele Valley landfill.

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