A North York industrial bakery facing prosecution by the Ministry of the Environment has received approval from a separate body, the Ontario Municipal Board, to retroactively legalize expansion done without city permits.

Fiera Foods, which was the subject of a Star investigation this year into temporary work, failed to obtain the necessary city permits for parts of an expansion that began about five years ago. In 2014, Fiera received a $1.5-million grant from the provincial government to help with its upgrades, and was lauded at the time by Premier Kathleen Wynne for creating good jobs.

The company has now successfully appealed to the OMB to grant it “minor variances” to local bylaws, meaning its expansion is now compliant with municipal requirements.

The decision does not affect the ministry of environment prosecution, which will proceed to trial in April. Charges were laid in January against Fiera Foods and adjacent sister company Marmora Freezing Corp. for breaching the terms of a government-issued Environmental Compliance Approval, which included the construction of a noise barrier wall, and for expanding without ministry approval. The Environment Ministry said since 2016 it has received around a thousand complaints about the facilities from community members, some of whom described noise pollution as “intolerable and unacceptable,” documents obtained by the Star show.

Fiera Foods counsel David Gelbloom said the factory has taken “a series of noise mitigation measures” following two ministry investigations last year, including reducing sound from condenser fans, and has now built the required sound barriers. He said noise in the area came from a variety of sources including major highways, flight paths and railways — not just the factory. Measurements conducted by the Environment Ministry this September showed the noise environment in nearby residential areas was in line with legal requirements, he said.

That company provided the same testimony to OMB member Paula Boutis, calling three expert witnesses who said the factory was now in compliance with noise regulations and was an important source of employment and economic growth in the area.

Four local residents also appeared as participants before the board asking it to deny the appeal. They cited ongoing noise issues disrupting the community and argued that many of the jobs on offer at Fiera were temporary, precarious positions.

“Nowhere in provincial policy do we promote low-paying precarious employment,” testified Paul Zamperin, whose aging parents live behind the factory.

This year, the Star sent a reporter to work undercover at Fiera, as part of an investigation into the rise of temporary work. The Star’s reporter, who was hired through a temp agency, received about five minutes of safety training, no hands-on instruction and was paid in cash at a payday lender without any documentation or deductions. Fiera and Marmora have been convicted under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in relation to the death of three temp agency workers since 1999.

Boutis’s ruling notes that the factory’s economic expert, Peter Norman, “did not contradict that these jobs may be of a precarious or temporary basis.” But Norman testified that “a job is a job” when it comes to economic development policies.

In a decision issued this week, Boutis ruled the factory’s expansion met provincial criteria for “good planning,” and found there was no excessive noise generated specifically from the parts of its expansion under appeal.

“The issue for the board is whether unacceptable impacts — including noise impacts — arise from the variances themselves, not whether the facility’s operations otherwise create noise impacts.”

“Participants, understandably, feel that if the board approves the variances ‘after the fact’, this amounts to allowing the applicants to flout the rules,” she added.

“While the board does not countenance undertaking construction or other activities without the needed approvals, the board’s judgment on planning permissions cannot be clouded by this,” Boutis said, adding the OMB does not play an “enforcement role for breaches of city bylaws or provincial legislation.”

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The approval is conditional on a deal struck between Fiera Foods and the City of Toronto, in which the company agreed to pay the City $200,000 toward the construction of a new traffic light in the neighbourhood.

smojtehedzadeh@thestar.ca, 416-869-4195