As a young person,…

As a young person, registered professional planner, and someone who is fully aware of the housing crisis, the changes to farm severances will be horrible for animal agriculture. The lands needed to provide for a lot without full services is 3-5x a serviced lot. The better approach would be opening up more land for development (which is proposed already) and continuing to restrict severances in agricultural areas. Every single lot that was created in the short window of time where "Retirement lots" could be created in the Region of Waterloo, has proved to be an absolute nightmare for any livestock operation. So I ask, is it more important that we gain 1-3 lots on a farm, or lose animal agriculture here, when food costs are already high.

Some farmers will opt to cease their small scale livestock operation so that they can comply with MDS regulations and sell 3 lots, which would have much more value than busting their back to raise 50 cattle etc.

Instead, there are 1000's of lots (2-10 acres in size) that aren't used for farming, but cannot be severed. Open the door to severance of these lots as the impact on agriculture is already established. Open up more land in serviced areas. We've already learned the lessons that urban and rural do not always mix. Bringing in people without an understanding of agriculture creates conflict with air, noise, pollution etc and the farmer's right to farm.