The original landfill proposal considering the Adams Mine for Toronto's garbage can be traced to 1989. The following year, the government of Metro Toronto selected the Adams Mine as the preferred site for replacing the Keele Valley Landfill in Vaughan which was rapidly reaching capacity. On 2 April 1991, Ruth Grier, then provincial Minister of the Environment, stated that the provincial government would not allow Toronto to send its garbage to the Adams Mine. In 1995, Metro Toronto began a formal assessment, and the project passed all environmental tests and assessments. The project was rejected at the final vote, in December 1996, to extend the Toronto option on the ownership of the mine because of erroneous information presented by Jack Layton in which he cited the cumulative cost of the project rather than the year by year costs. At the same vote, the Chair, Alan Tonks also changed his position from support of the project to voting against. The final vote was 19–13 against the proposal to extend Toronto's option to use the site. This vote eventually led to Toronto shipping garbage to the US.