City council is expected to vote tonight on Nelson Aggregate’s bid to expand onto 82 hectares across from its existing quarry on the Niagara Escarpment at Mount Nemo.

Company president Norm Elmhirst said Wednesday he still hopes to convince a majority of council to back the application, even though members of the community development committee voted 5-2 against it late last month.

Halton regional council has already rejected the expansion, as has Conservation Halton. The Niagara Escarpment Commission is slated to make its decision Nov. 18.

With or without agency and municipal support, a decision on issuing a provincial aggregate licence will be made by a joint panel of the Ontario Municipal Board and the Environmental Review Tribunal, which has already held a series of procedural pre-hearings. The next pre-hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8. The process will eventually move to a public-hearing stage.

Elmhirst says he wasn’t surprised by the regional council or city committee votes because staff at both levels of government recommended rejection.

He argues the reports focused on potential harm, ignoring the economic benefits of producing crushed stone for construction in the Greater Toronto Area and the potential loss of jobs in north Burlington if the quarry has to shut when its existing site is exhausted.

Municipal staffers cite concerns about the effect on provincially significant wetlands, loss of habitat for the threatened Jefferson salamander and endangered butternut tree, and impact on private wells.

Nelson issued a news release last week to say it was encouraged the hearings board recently ruled against four of five issues presented in a City of Burlington motion the city said was aimed at clarifying issues and shortening the eventual public hearing.

The board refused to consolidate rehabilitation of the existing quarry into the new application or to include Nelson’s application for a water-taking permit in the licence hearing. It did, however, rule that the 2005 Niagara Escarpment Plan should apply rather than an earlier version.

Elmhirst said he was encouraged “that the joint board agreed with the position put forward by Nelson and rejected the Burlington position in four of the five issues. We believe that these were tactics to delay the hearing … .”

He maintains outstanding issues could be settled “if the city and region would just sit down with us and resolve issues, which they have thus far refused to do.”