Soil tracking tech aims to address transparency gaps in Ontario

Key Takeaways:

• The app’s creator says Ontario’s soil tracking system is severely underutilized, with less than 15% of sites registered in the official registry — largely due to fees that have increased over 2,000% since 2022, reaching up to $230,000 for large sites with no accompanying services.
• The transparency gap has real consequences: 80% of reusable soil is sent to landfill instead of being redirected, landfills are projected to hit capacity within 7 years, and a landfill ban on soil takes effect in 2027 with no redirect system in place.
• The Phil App built Ontario Soil Tracker as a free, no-login alternative to visualize publicly available data and expose how soil is actually moving across the province.

The Whole Story:

The Phil App announced the launch of Ontario Soil Tracker, a free website that aggregates and visualizes publicly available data from Ontario’s Excess Soil Registry. The platform, available at www.ontariosoiltracker.ca, aims to address transparency gaps in how contaminated soil is tracked and redirected across the province.

Ontario generates tens of millions of tonnes of contaminated soil annually from construction projects. Under provincial regulations, builders must track soil origin, destination, and contents, but less than 15 per cent of sites are registered with the official registry, the company said in a news release.

“Ontario effectively has no data. Less than 15% of sites are registered — the program is too expensive and the incentive structure is wrong. A marketplace fixes that: quality listings get quality matches, so being compliant saves you money,” Bryan Kerr, co-founder of The Phil App, said in the release.

The Ontario Soil Tracker allows contractors, environmental consultants, municipal planners, journalists, and policymakers to explore key questions about soil movement: how much soil is moving across Ontario and where it goes; whether excess soil regulations are achieving stated outcomes; what participation costs builders; and how much soil movement remains unknown or unreported.

The official registry charges project owners up to $230,000 to register large sites—a fee that includes no services and places them on a list for enforcement visits. Those fees have increased more than 2,000 per cent since 2022, according to the release.

The Phil App operates a separate marketplace that matches source sites with receiver sites needing soil. Hauls on the platform average 29 kilometres, compared to the provincial average of 65 kilometres—a 55 per cent reduction that cuts costs, truck trips, and carbon emissions, the company said.

Ontario’s landfills are projected to reach capacity within seven years, with 80 per cent of reusable soil currently sent to landfill rather than redirected to nearby construction sites. Soil will be banned from landfills in 2027, but no process is in place for redirecting it, according to the release.

“We may be the only group in Ontario with a real picture of how much contaminated soil is being generated and where it ends up. Many of our 4,000 users asked us to help fix the official registry. After three years of trying through official channels, we decided to just build it ourselves,” Kerr said.

The Ontario Soil Tracker requires no login, subscription, or Phil account to access.