001-45_EJQR10_FALL26_PT - Flipbook - Page 9
Approximately three hours later, the AI agent had downloaded
1500 ECAs, parsed, reviewed and categorized each ECA: 83
approvals were found authorizing Class 1-type activity: soil
banks, soil processing plants and transfer facilities. For each
these, the AI analysis extracted the approved receiving limits
(stated annual maximums where the approval gives one,
otherwise daily limits annualized). The AI agent had matched
the 83 ECAs to the 667 distinct Class 1 destination entries in the
RPRA registry, with an over 90 per cent success rate.
What the receiving network looks like
The headline number is large but needs careful interpretation.
Across 74 of the 83 post-2022 processing and transfer approvals
with usable receiving-rate limits, the annualized paper ceiling is
roughly 24.9 million cubic metres per year. Registry destinations
associated with 昀椀lings 昀椀rst submitted in 2024 allocated about
1.92 million cubic metres to matched Class 1 sites. That is not
a utilization rate: registry volumes are proponent estimates,
not weighbridge throughput, and many approval ceilings were
annualized from daily limits. It does, however, show that the
provincial paper ceiling is much larger than the registry-visible 昀氀ow.
The 24.9-million 昀椀gure is also a 昀氀oor because facilities operating under
older approvals add capacity this analysis could not yet quantify.
The market is strikingly concentrated. Three operators account
for about 90 per cent of the registry volume attributed to speci昀椀c
approvals. Geography is where the comfortable provincial total gets
complicated:
REGION
CLASS 1 SITES
ANNUALIZED RECEIVINGRATE CEILING (M3/YR)
SHARE OF REGISTERED
SOIL GENERATION
Greater Toronto Area
38
14,900,000
~63%
North Central
(Barrie–Kawartha)
7
3,800,000
~6%
Southwestern Ontario
10
2,100,000
~11%
Eastern Ontario (incl. Ottawa)
12
2,000,000
~9%
Hamilton–Niagara
4
700,000
~4%
Northern Ontario
5
300,000
~2%
Sites approved 2022 onward; regional shares of generation are based on
project-area 昀椀lings, 2023-2026. A further approximately 1.0 million m3/yr
of annualized capacity could not be located precisely.
E N V I RON M E N T J OURN A L QUA RT E RLY RE PORT • FA L L 2 02 6 • P AGE 9
