I own a farm in halton that…

I own a farm in halton that I built from scratch. I have invested millions in my farm BUSINESS. We are having serious issues with halton conservation and the way they are mapping wetlands with excessive 120 metre setbacks from ANY development. This includes any agricultural buildings and homes and landscaping and OFDUs and ARUs.
30 metres for a small wetland is sufficient and Kelly Mc Cormick director of CH said the buffers will increase in the future. Meanwhile we all know they own 2 parks with lakes that are next to washrooms and retail. All we get from them every 2 weeks is a newsletter promoting their park membership when they have lost all touch of what conservation should be about. No farmer wants them on their property but other parts of Ontario like their conservation authorities and if they have a project seek advice.
They should concentrate only on flood management and their original core mandate. They now have a fee schedule that is exorbitant and they add extra red tape and fees to any project. A rural landowner next to my farm was charged 2000$ for an above ground pool for a pool by them. The neighbour next to them was stopped for putting patio stones down in her backyard. When did they become a regulatory body ? Landowners that want to do the right thing will not seek advice or even build because of the excessive fees. It took us a few months years ago to get a permit and now it is over 3 years with too many regulatory bodies. Halton region, CH, city, NEC. What in the world is going on?
We all know the big fees they are charging is to pay for their illicit mandates. We are being held hostage here in halton and the Ford government better follow through like they said they will or else over 4000 farm businesses will cease to exist.
My friends started up a new grain drying facility and did not even build it here because of the studies required( this is what is causing the delays as well, 100,000$)
The 120 metre buffer for all development is ok if it relates to flood planes but how does this relate to a barn, a greenhouse, a silo or anything a farm needs to do their job as a normal farm practice. How are we to produce food with this useless CH down our backs?
There is no consistency and transparency. The definition of development changes from conservation authority to conservation authority. Where is the transparency in that?
Solution- the Ontario system of mapping PSWs is broken beyond scope and scale and the province needs to fix this at the ministerial level and not the conservation authority. Ground truthing and accurate mapping is out of financial reach for farmers and rural landowners. The province needs to fix this.
There is no appeal process for farmers to show an aerial photo turned into a wetland is not a wetland. We need a reasonable solution that we can do because our conservation authority is the one that caused the 120 metre buffer to a bogus wetland with their aerial photo!!!!!!
Remember we the farmers have farmed these halton lands since the 1800’s and we are the ones that planted all this natural heritage that everyone enjoys looking at on the escarpment. I think conservation halton and our region ignore this very fact and keep increasing buffers as if we are criminals. Follow through and fix this as we are at wits end.