Since 1997, all of the legacy sites (all 7,900) have been assessed and it has been
determined that 3,200 will require some sort of assistance by the MAAP program. The
reality is many of the 7,900 sites have been reverted to other uses since often it has
been 40 or more years since these sites have experienced disturbances. Based on the
inventories many of the legacy sites files have been ‘closed’ for multiple reasons such
as: obtaining re-licence status for aggregate extraction; disappearing under urban
expansion (Figure 1); being rehabilitated by the property owner; and/or have naturalized
on their own.
In order to successful tackle the volume of sites MAAP created a systematic priority
ranking system to evaluate the legacy sites across Ontario. The inventories provide a
clear record of the current conditions by documenting three key parameters: safety,
environmental and aesthetics factors to provide a composite overall ranking of ‘high’,
‘medium’ or ‘low’ priority.