How do we Protect our Farmland from Bill 5 Changes?

Ontario’s farmland has supported our agricultural heritage for centuries. We have seen it whittled away by urban development but the landscape still supports a viable farming community and cultural environment. That landscape has been protected and managed by extensive land use planning and other municipal controls. Some provincial level legislation has also been used to support the right to farm as well. But all that is in jeopardy.

Using Bill 5, Ontario has past The Special Economic Zones Act, a draconian piece of legislation, which allows the Cabinet by simply passing a regulation to override any municipal land use planning or provincial legislation by designating a Special Economic Zone of any size anywhere in the province. There is no planning process or environmental review. They simply have to “designate” a project or a “trusted proponent” and the project is a go with no rules applying.

In an age where big tech is looking for large greenfield sites to build data centres and the waste management companies want large acreages to create landfills, it is not wise to unleash wildcat development that may result in a landscape that no longer can support viable agricultural uses.

Our agricultural heritage is an important value for our province and although economic development is necessary, it should not impede or override the accumulated wisdom, practices, and human interaction with the land for sustenance that has existed for generations.

The Special Economic Zones Act must be repealed before serious damage is done.

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