The pressure is on for the Ontario government to back away from a land deal that would see 770 acres of farmland turned into a yet-to-be-determined industrial development.
Hundreds of citizens in Wilmot Township near Kitchener, Ont., have posted signs and signed petitions proclaiming they are “unwilling hosts” to the planned development. Farmers — including those who have refused to sell land to the development consortium — took their tractors to the streets of Kitchener last week to add some horsepower to the protest, all being organized under the Fight for Farmland banner.
The protest highlighted deep frustration over the lack of transparency and the absence of public meetings regarding the development. For six months, farmers have faced pressure to sell their land or risk expropriation, with no clear answers from local, regional, or provincial governments, says Kevin Thomason, vice chair of the Grand River Environmental Network.
In this video interview, Thomason explains what happened in the months leading up to this protest, and why people like him and many others are asking the provincial government to walk back the development. “We now know the province is calling the shots and funding this project,” Thomason says; however, there are few details on what the site is being developed for, why farmland is being allowed to be developed, and why there’s been so much secrecy over the project.
Thomason says that farmers are frustrated over the lack of answers and the secretive processes used to seize prime farmland. Landowners in the area and residents are concerned that a development of this size and scale so far from any infrastructure would also put strain on roadways and be a traffic hazard for the farms in the area.
What’s more, he adds that there is concern that if a process like this one in Wilmot Township is allowed to go forward, more land development deals will go forward in other parts of the provinces, threatening farmland.
The Fight For Farmland group remains committed to advocating for a win-win solution, urging Wilmot Council to declare itself an unwilling host, as per Doug Ford’s wording on the matter, the region to abandon the site, and the province to respect the region’s planning authority.
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