Regional Council Vote on…

Regional Council Vote on ROPA 49 frustrates both Town council decisions of Halton Hills and Milton for modest urban expansion as Recommended by Curt Benson Regional Planner in IGMS Preferrd Growth Concept Workshop Feb 9 2021.
Halton Region needs two official plans, One for north (Milton and Halton Hills and one for south (Oakville & Burlington).
The larger urban south squelches the voice of the smaller rural north and this is unfair.

The OFAs numbers of farm land lost to development is suspect.
There are 3 alternate methods to calculate land consumed and should be relied upon as a preferred alternate.

Halton farmers are a family divided with VOW (Voice of the Whitebelt) larger landowners in the whitebelt, against HRFA, mainly small landowners in the greenbelt. The OFA DOES NOT REPRESENT HALTON WHITEBELT FARMERS NOR DOES THEIR PUPPET HRFA.
"VOW" REPRESENTS WHITEBELT FARMERS INTERESTS.

One third of Corn crop (2,000,000 Ac/3= 666,000 Ac ) goes for ethanol, with electric cars this land becomes surplus!! So a Halton loss of 5,000 ac of farmland ( needed for development to 2051) will not impact agriculture.

Farm land for corn and soybeans is sprayed with roundup creating a biological dessert no flowers, no trees, no shrubs, no weeds, the urban town with gardens, laws and trees is more conducive to nature i.e birds, bees, small mammals.

The subject urban land expansion are whitebelt lands used for cash cropping corn beans and wheat. Over 90% is exported to JRI on Hamilton Harbour for shipping word wide i.e. not local use.

Two farmers with good machinery can easily work 2,000 acres of cash crop so farm jobs are minimal. Consider 2,000 acres of employment land can generate maybe 10,000 jobs and earn $700,000,000 in tax revenue (Personal Income tax, Corporate Tax, CPP UI Realty Tax) whereas 2,000 acres of farmland generates $400,000 in taxes.
Lot of medical services (covid) and carbon capture can be purchased with that extra tax money.

Farming is NOT carbon capture, plants decay = carbon, cattle eat corn give off methane gas, corn used for ethanol for cars. Carbon capture comes form long term storage i.e. trees.