John Vanthof left school at 17 to take over his family’s dairy farm in Earlton when his father fell ill. He served on several farming committees, was a municipal councillor and has been the NDP MLA for Timiskaming-Cochrane since 2011.
In this video, John tells us about the role he played in the struggle to prevent the abandoned Adams Mine pit near Kirkland Lake from being used as a landfill for Toronto’s garbage. Farmers were especially concerned about potential contamination of the area water supply because, he says, “The quality of our product depends on the quality of the water and the confidence of people to purchase it.”
Unlike other opponents of the project, John says he was never opposed to the use of the site for a dump provided it could be proven to be safe. “That’s much harder (for proponents) to deal with than if I had just said no right off,” he tells us.
John attributes the ultimate success of the battle to the fact that the entire community – Anglophones, Francophones, farmers, First Nations and environmental activists - worked together. In a situation like this, he says, “You need to put down your swords on the little battles to fight the big ones.”
Unimpressed with the assurances of consultants, farmers did their own research and engaged a respected hydrologist whose critical analysis of the environmental assessment found there was no proof the project would be safe. The proponent sued John for $10 million for questioning the safety of the project, forcing him to rely on loans from neighbours when the banks cut him off.
John also comments on the use of civil disobedience, recalling the two occasions when a convoy of 80 farmers blocked the Ontario Northland Railway line with their tractors. “There are times when civil disobedience is a tool,” he tells us, and goes on to offer advice on how to manage it to avoid violence.
Moving on from the Adams Mine struggle, John offers some advice on what needs to change to preserve forestry jobs for small Northern Ontario communities and comments on some of the changes affecting the agriculture industry in northeastern Ontario.