May 5, 2023 The Honourable…

May 5, 2023

The Honourable Steve Clark
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
17th Floor, 777 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 2J3

Sent via email to: minister.mah@ontario.ca and submitted online through the Environmental Registry of
Ontario

Dear Minister Clark,

Re: ERO 019-6821 - Proposed Planning Act, City of Toronto Act, 2006, and Ministry of
Municipal Affairs and Housing Act Changes (Schedules 2, 4, and 6 of Bill 97 - the
proposed Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act , 2023)

The Perth County Federation of Agriculture (PCFA) represents the unique farming interests of Perth County farmers. After 75 years, we are proud to represent over 1,800 farming families in Perth County. PCFA believes the protection of prime agricultural land for agricultural use is of paramount importance.

Agriculture is the main economic driver in Perth County with 1.2 billion in farm cash receipts in 2021. The top 3 products we produce are hogs, dairy and grains and oilseeds but we also have diverse production of many other agricultural products. Perth County has many innovative and ambitious producers and we are well positioned to rise to the challenge of the province’s agri-food strategy, Grow Ontario.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide our comments with respect to Schedule 6 of Bill 97 which makes various amendments to the Planning Act, including:
“A new subsection 47 (4.0.1) is added to provide that the Minister may, in an order made under
clause 47 (1) (a), provide that policy statements, provincial plans and official plans do not apply in
respect of a licence, permit, approval, permission or other matter required before a use permitted
by the order may be established.”

Section 47 of the Planning Act allows you as the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (“Minister”) to make “Minister's Zoning Orders” (“MZOs”), to govern land uses within areas subject to the order. We note that significant acres of farmland have been lost to development because of Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) to date.

PCFA must express its strong opposition to the use of Municipal Zoning Orders (MZOs) by municipalities with robust planning systems, Official Plans and Zoning By-laws. With an Official Plan that the County of Perth has been in the process of updating, we have a structure that should be used. The use of MZO’ s undermines Ontario’s long-established system of land use planning under the Planning Act, the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) and municipal Official Plans and Zoning By-laws.
Ontario has a well-established system for amending municipal Official Plans and Zoning By-laws to accommodate population and employment growth, including a system for appeals. The issuance of MZOs, short circuits these long-established planning principles and policies. It deprives citizens impacted by these MZOs the ability to be consulted on proposed amendments to municipal Official Plans and Zoning By-laws.
We remind municipalities and government that without fulsome and aggressive planning designed to preserve farmland above all; we will fail in this important task for the future. This Province will have to do much better to save our Class 1,2 and 3 farmland from further assault.
Ontario’s shrinking agricultural land base is alarming. The current rate of loss is measured at 319 acres per day in our province, according to the 2021 Census of Agriculture. These losses are not sustainable. We also wish to emphasize that there is only one Ontario landscape. The full range of urban, rural, agricultural, natural heritage, cultural heritage, and mineral extraction land uses must coexist across this landscape.

Provincially, the protection of Ontario’s prime agricultural areas for their long-term agricultural use must be a key objective. It is one thing to think about housing the anticipated additional two million people that will reside in Ontario over the next ten years, but it is another to think seriously about how we will feed this increased population. Ontario's agricultural lands are a finite and shrinking resource. We cannot sustain continuing losses of agricultural land while maintaining our ability to produce food, fibre, fuel, flowers, and nursery stock from this limited and declining agricultural land base. Therefore, any proposals looking at increasing housing supply must be done with consideration to the needs and support of the agricultural community.

PCFA endorses the 2020 Provincial Policy Statement (PPS 2020)’s Agriculture policies [Section 2.3] that require municipalities protect their prime agricultural areas for their long-term agricultural use. We further support the flexibility afforded to farmers to engage in on-farm value adding of primary farm products, as well as agriculture-related, on-farm diversified and agri-tourism uses. Although the PPS 2020 defines prime agricultural land as Canada Land Inventory (CLI) Class 1- 3 soils plus specialty crop areas, the PCFA believes that prime agricultural lands should be defined as Class 1 to 4 soils plus specialty crop lands. Class 5-6 soils that are part of an ongoing agricultural operation deserve protection too. These soils can support agricultural activities such as grazing livestock or growing crops for biofuels, and their productivity can be improved through activities such as tile drainage, stone picking and the addition of lime. Where Class 1-4 soils are not present in a county or region, the best agricultural lands in that county or region should be recognized and protected for their agricultural use.

PCFA is a strong supporter of the preservation of Prime Farmland classes 1, 2, 3 & 4 plus specialty crop lands across rural Ontario. We believe strongly in the PPS 2020 Agriculture policies that governs farmland and rural areas protecting the right to farm and the Agriculture System in Ontario. In addition to this, PCFA believes strongly that lot creation and further fragmentation of farmland in the rural area is counterproductive for the agricultural business structure in Ontario’s rural areas.

PCFA does not support amendments to the Planning Act that would give the Minister or any other planning authority the ability to make planning decisions which are not consistent with the PPS 2020. On balance, the policies of the PPS 2020 represent the minimum standard in support of protecting the environment, farmland and public health and safety.

PCFA feels that the PPS 2020 does not go far enough in protecting our finite agricultural lands. We recommended strengthening of the PPS 2020 in order to require fixed urban settlement boundaries and policies requiring mandatory intensification within the existing built urban areas as well as mandatory “greenfield” density requirements to better utilize infrastructure, improve the financial viability of public transit and protect our prime agricultural lands from sprawl.

PCFA does not support the Planning Act amendment specified in Schedule 6 of Bill 97 to give the Minister the ability to issue MZOs that are not consistent with policy statements, provincial plans and official plans. However, PCFA understands the need for the Minister to have the power of an MZO and we support MZO usage in areas of the province that are without robust local planning processes. We have no objection to MZOs being used within the lands that would be considered the Urban Envelope.

We are concerned that amending the Planning Act in a way that would allow for planning decisions that are inconsistent with the PPS 2020 could open up the floodgates for a rash of developments that run counter to our overarching philosophy of farmland preservation which is paramount to OFA’s mission of “Farms and Food Forever” that PCFA supports.

PCFA appreciates the opportunity to provide our feedback and agricultural perspectives on the proposed Planning Act changes. We look forward to working with the provincial government and our municipal counterparts to protect Ontario’s farmlands as well as sustain Ontario’s housing supply and communities.

Sincerely,

Julie Danen
President
Perth County Federation of Agriculture

cc: The Honourable Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs
Matthew Rae, MPP Perth-Wellington